One of the largest deserts in the world. What is the largest desert in the world? Interesting facts about the largest desert. The largest deserts in the world: Arabian and Gobi
Deserts occupy approximately 11% of the total land surface, including Antarctica, more than 20% or 16.5 million km. sq. (not including Antarctica) and are characterized by low precipitation, a unique fauna, and sparse or absent flora. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the list of the ten largest deserts in the world. And if we made a mistake somewhere with the numbers, please write to us about it in the comments. Since the figures given in different sources differ.
Karakum
Karakum (translated as Black Sands) is a desert in Central Asia that occupies about 70% of the entire territory of Turkmenistan or 350,000 square kilometers. The longest irrigation canal in the world, the Karakum Canal, runs here.
The Great Sandy or Western Desert is Australia's second largest desert, covering an area of about 360,000 km. kv. (approximately 3.5% of mainland Australia). Its region is sparsely populated, with only a few Aboriginal groups living there.
Chihuahua
Chihuahua is a desert in North America, located on the border between the United States and Mexico. The area of Chihuahua is approx. 362,000 km. kv. According to the World Wildlife Fund, it is one of the most biologically diverse deserts in the world, inhabited by the largest number of animal species.
The Great Victoria Desert is Australia's largest desert, covering an area of 424,400 km. kv. and consisting of many sand dunes, grassy plains and salt lakes.
The Great Basin Desert is one of the largest deserts in the United States, covering an area 490,000 square kilometers.
The Patagonian Desert is one of the largest deserts in the world, located in South America mainly in Argentina and a small part of Chile. Covers an area of approx. 673,000 km. kv. The desert is bordered in the west by the Andes and in the east by the Atlantic Ocean.
Kalahari
The Kalahari is a desert in South Africa with an area of about 600 thousand km. kv, is the fourth largest desert in the world. It is located mainly on the territory of states such as Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, and also partially invades the territory of Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It has lush vegetation and rich wildlife. The Kalahari is considered one of the hottest regions in Africa.
Gobi
Gobi means “waterless place” in Mongolian. This is a large desert in Central Asia with an area of 1,295,000 km. kv. Extends across China and Mongolia.
The Arabian Desert is located in Africa (Egypt) and is the northeastern part of the Sahara. It is located between the Nile River and the Red Sea. Due to strong winds, frequent sandstorms and high temperatures, most of the desert is completely uninhabited.
Sahara
Deserts are natural areas characterized by flat surfaces and little or no flora. They often contain quite specific fauna. Deserts can be sandy, rocky, clayey or saline. Snow (Arctic) ones are distinguished separately. There are nine types based on the nature of soil and soil, and three based on dynamic precipitation.
Sahara
What is the largest desert in the world? There are many of them on the planet. But there are not so many really large ones among them. And the largest desert in the world is the Sahara. It is located in the north - more than 8.5 million square meters. km. This is almost 1/3 of the continent. Despite the harsh conditions, approximately 2.5 million people live on its territory. But still, the population density there is the lowest on earth. The main peoples living on its territory are Berbers and Tuaregs.
Age of the Sahara Desert
Few people know that this desert is much “younger” than many people believe. It is generally accepted that the Sahara is five and a half thousand years old. Scientists have found that 6,000 years ago this desert “lived” - it had trees, gardens and a lot of lakes. But over time she changed. According to the latest research by the scientific community, the majority is inclined to believe that the Sahara “desertified” only 2.7 thousand years ago.
Territorial highlights
There are several states on the territory of the Sahara - Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Chad, Niger, Sudan and Research shows that the desert territory is unstable. It is constantly changing. Data have been obtained from satellites that the Sahara periodically increases or decreases.
Curious facts about the Sahara
In some places in this desert during the day you can fry eggs on the hot sand, and at night right there the thermometer can drop to minus ten. Therefore, in past centuries, trade caravans moved through the desert exclusively at night, and during the day they pitched tents and rested.
In addition to the usual information about the Sahara, there are many interesting facts. It also has one more feature - this is one of the few rare places on the planet where evaporation greatly exceeds precipitation: in the ratio from 2000 to 5000 mm/100 mm.
There is a huge underground lake under the Sahara, which is even larger than Baikal, and the oases exist precisely because of it. There is not so much sand in the desert - only 1/5, and the rest of the territory is occupied by rocky land, and very little - sand and pebbles and simple
The desert sand cover is approximately 150 meters deep, and the largest sand dunes are similar in height to the Eiffel Tower. And if all of humanity is going to scoop up the sand of the Sahara, then each of them will have over 3 million buckets.
Strong winds constantly blow in the desert. There are only twenty calm days in the entire year. Khamsin is one of the most famous winds in the desert, translated as "fifty", which refers to how quickly it blows. Interestingly, this coincides with the Egyptian wind season, which lasts the same number of days.
Mirages
The largest desert in the world has an interesting phenomenon - mirages, which were previously considered to occur anywhere, but it turns out that they have a permanent location. And today there is even a special map on which they are plotted.
It is also interesting that a complete description of the mirage at this place is given - a palace, a well, a mountain range, an oasis, a palm grove. Each of them is basically permanent. Every year there are up to 160 thousand of them. Mirages can have several options - wandering, vertical, stable and horizontal.
Flora and fauna of the Sahara
The plants here are mainly subshrubs and shrubs. On the south side there are ephemeroids and ephemera. Animals move quickly, with the ability to dig sand (having hair brushes, claws, and bristles on their paws).
The largest desert on earth is famous for a place called Death Valley. It is considered the hottest and driest place on earth.
Despite the harsh living conditions, the Sahara is home to many species of flora and fauna: 545 plants, 12 amphibians, 13 fish (in oasis lakes), and more than 80 mammals and reptiles.
The largest deserts in the world: captivating and dangerous
The Sahara is not the only large desert in the world; there are others almost equal to it. There are nine more large deserts on our planet. All of them are smaller in area than the Sahara, but in relation to the others they are much larger. On every continent there is a similar representative of the area.
The largest desert in the world after the Sahara is the Arabian. Its territory is 2,330,000 square meters. m. And it captures the territories of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Syria. This desert is mostly uninhabited due to strong winds and sandstorms, and the temperature fluctuations here are quite large. An egg can fry in sand in just 10 minutes. And at night even the stones crack due to the cold.
The Gobi Desert is located in the lands of China and Mongolia. Bert originated from the Altai mountains. Its territory is 166,000 square meters. km. If you translate its name, it will sound like “waterless place.”
The Australian desert is the next largest desert on the planet by area (647,000 sq. km). It is here that you can find the famous red dunes, whose height reaches 40 meters.
Kalahari means “tormenting”. Its territory is 600 thousand square meters. km. But its area is constantly increasing, capturing the territories of Botswana, Angola, Zambabwe and Zambia.
Karakum means “black sands”. Its territory is 350 thousand square meters. km. The height of the ridges can reach 60 meters. This desert is located over most of Turkmenistan. Due to the shallow vegetation that prevails there, local residents have adapted it as a pasture for livestock.
Taklamakan is located in Central Asia, its territory is 337,600 square meters. km. There in 2008 not only very low temperatures were observed, but even snowfall!
Many people wonder which desert is the largest among the salt deserts? To this we can answer that Salar da Uyuni is considered the greatest in the world. On its territory, salt amounts to billions of tons. And the passing rains, dissolving it, turn the desert into a huge mirror.
The Atacama is the largest desert in Chile. This is the driest place on earth. The plants, however, were able to adapt, developing their own ways of surviving in this place. During drought, they even refuse the functions of reproduction and growth.
Antarctica is the largest desert in the world made of ice. Its area is over 14 million square meters. km. And surprisingly, this particular desert is considered the driest place on the planet. There is an explanation - all the moisture is “dried up” by the cold, and precipitation here does not exceed 4 cm per year. And the year 1983 was marked by its lowest temperature - 89 degrees Celsius.
Sandy deserts cover about 20% of the land on Earth. These are huge lifeless spaces, on the territory of which an unprepared person is doomed to inevitable death. The largest desert, how the boundless abyss is capable of taking over, absorbing and destroying, but how devastatingly beautiful it is...
The largest desert on Earth
Sandy deserts are the hottest places on our planet. Basically, such natural areas are located in Africa, Australia and Eurasia. There are also places like salt desert Salar de Uyuni. Also, relatively small deserts can be found in America. Any schoolchild knows about the Sahara - it’s largest desert. In addition, it is also the hottest. The local temperature ranges from 15 to 58 degrees. The desert area is more than 9,000,000 square kilometers.
If the Sahara were in Russia, it would occupy half of the country's territory. The name of the sandy natural area mentioned above was given by the Arabs. In the Sahara today you can find about 150,000 mirages. There is even a special map with marks where you often see it – a river, a well or an oasis. The largest desert in the world extends over the territory of almost all of North Africa and occupies the area of the following countries: Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Libya, Chad, Mauritania, Egypt, Tunisia, etc. Sandstorms of the Sahara can partially reach even the territory of Europe.
The largest deserts in the world: Arabian and Gobi
Listing largest deserts in the world You can’t ignore the second largest desert – the Arabian Desert. As the name suggests, the Arabian Sand Zone is located on the peninsula of the same name. It covers Saudi Arabia, a small part of Iraq, Syria, East Jordan and Egypt. In the center of the desert is Rub'al-Qali - this is one of the largest sand massifs on Earth. A significant part of the desert is uninhabited due to frequent storms and winds, large temperature changes. Daily temperatures vary from 40 to 50 degrees in summer, and from 5 to 15 in winter But there were also cases of zero temperatures.
And, of course, the no less famous zone of the Gobi sands can bear the title - largest desert. In terms of area, this natural area ranks third in the world, and first in Asia. The name of the desert comes from the Mongolian word for “waterless place.” The Gobi is located in Central Asia, covering Mongolia and part of China, which, in turn, is represented in the world as, practically, the biggest country in the world. The northern border of the desert can be called the Mongolian steppes, the southern border is the Yellow River.
The largest deserts in the world, other options
It is worth briefly mentioning other major largest deserts in the world- this is Australian, which occupies almost the entire territory of the country of the same name, and there are also speculations that it is also largest island in the world; The Kalahari is the largest desert in South Africa and the Karakum Desert, which occupies about 4/5 of the territory of Turkmenistan. But, despite its size, any desert is an equally deadly and merciless place, such as driest desert Atacaba world in South America...
Share of deserts on earth
The most ominous deserts are sandy, they cover 1/5 of the land. In addition to sandy deserts, there are also saline, clayey and rocky deserts. Large expanses of eternal snow in Antarctica and the Arctic Circle are called snow or ice deserts. However, in our review we will focus specifically on sandy deserts.
Sandy deserts are the hottest places on Earth; the hot sand heats up to such temperatures that it burns your feet. An unprepared person cannot live in the desert without water and shade for a couple of days.
The largest sand deserts are found in Africa, Eurasia and Australia, while the deserts of North and South America are relatively small.
Map of the world's deserts(increase)
Sahara. 9,065,000 km²
The Sahara Desert is the largest and hottest desert in the world, its area exceeds 9 million km², which is more than 50% of the territory of Russia. It covers almost all of North Africa: Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Sudan, Chad, Libya and other countries.
The name "Sahara" is an Arabic translation of the Tuareg word for "desert". In summer, the air temperature can rise to 58°, in winter it stays within 15-28° C.
In the Sahara, as in other sandy deserts, sandstorms are frequent; strong winds can carry sand dust even to Europe.
More than 150 thousand mirages are observed in the Sahara, which are marked on maps indicating which particular mirage is most often “showed” in this particular area - an oasis, a river or a well.
There is less precipitation in the south of the Sahara than in the north; there are particularly dry periods lasting up to three years, during which there is no precipitation at all. The only source of water in the Sahara, other than rain, is the Nile, which crosses it in the east. However, thanks to underground waters in the waterless desert, there are oases with deep wells; it is in the oases that hotels are located for tourists who come to drive jeeps across the Sahara; the most luxurious date palms and sweet grapes grow in the oases.
Arabian desert
Arabian desert. 2,330,000 km²
The Arabian Desert is the second largest desert in the world. The Arabian Desert is located on the Arabian Peninsula, located in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and occupies parts of Iraq, Syria, southern and eastern Jordan. Vast expanses of the Arabian Desert are occupied by moving dunes and sand massifs, at its center is the Rub'al Qali, one of the largest sand massifs in the world. Most of the territory is uninhabited due to frequent sand and dust storms and strong winds, high temperatures with large diurnal amplitudes typical for deserts. The temperature range is 40-50°C in summer, the average temperature in winter is 5-15°C, although it can drop to 0°C.
Gobi. 1,166,000 km²
The Gobi is one of the largest deserts in the world, ranked 3rd in the ranking. It is located in Central Asia, on the territory of Mongolia and China, stretching from the Altai and Tien Shan mountains in the east to the North China Plateau in the west; in the north the Gobi passes into the steppes on the territory of Mongolia, in the south it is limited by the Yellow River. The word “Gobi” is of Mongolian origin and means “waterless place”; in Central Asia, this word generally refers to desert and semi-desert places. In terms of the totality of desert areas, the Gobi is the largest desert in Asia.
Australian desert
Australian desert. 647,000 km²
The deserts have taken over the vast territory of Australia, almost half of the continent. A significant part of the Australian deserts in the west are located on a huge plateau 200 m above sea level. Some deserts rise even higher, up to 600 m. The complex terrain divides the giant Australian desert into several autonomous ones. The largest of them, the Great Sandy Desert, is located in the northwestern part of the continent; to the south lies the huge Great Victoria Desert. In the northern part of the Great Sandy Desert, the sands are red-brown in color; other areas are covered not with sand, but with dark rubble and pebbles.
Among the sandy deserts of Australia, the largest is the Arunta Desert, or Simpson Desert. It is located in the central part of the continent, closer to the west.
Kalahari
Kalahari. 600,000 km²
The Kalahari Desert, the largest of the deserts in South Africa, covers an area of about 600 thousand square meters. km and is located in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia. The Kalahari Desert occupies the southwestern part of the depression of the same name, located at an altitude of 900 m. In the west, the edge of the Kalahari lies at an altitude of 1500 m above sea level, in the east - even higher; the lowest point of the desert is at an altitude of 840 m above sea level. The surface of the Kalahari is composed of horizontally lying continental strata of sandstones, pebbles and breccias.
Recently, the desert has been expanding its borders and invading the territory of Angola, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Precipitation (up to 500 mm) is confined to the summer period (November - April), but its value varies significantly both in time and area. The Kalahari is one of the hottest regions of South Africa. The average maximum temperature is plus 29°, and the average minimum temperature is plus 12°.
Karakum
Karakum. 350,000 km²
The Karakum desert, a sandy desert in southern Central Asia, occupies more than 80% of the entire territory of Turkmenistan.
Karakum in Turkmen means “black sand” (from the Turkic “kara” - black and “kum” - sand). Despite such a frightening name, the desert is inhabited: there are several thousand species of arthropods, several dozen species of reptiles, two dozen species of mammals and about three dozen species of birds, and about 270 species of plants.
Turkmenbashi’s plans were to replace the ugly desert with a beautiful forest by planting trees in certain areas, and it was also planned to build a zoo for penguins on its territory, which would attract visitors from all over the world. After the death of the Father of all Turkmens, fortunately, nothing has been heard about these plans yet.
Deserts on the planet occupy more than 20% of the land. But do you know which one is the biggest? If your answer is Sahara, then you are wrong. And TravelAsk will tell you why.
What types of deserts are there?
In fact, the largest desert on the planet is the Antarctic Desert. Its area is 13,829,430 square kilometers.
First, let's remember the definition of desert. This is a natural area characterized by a flat surface, sparseness or absence of flora and specific fauna. Scientists distinguish between sandy, rocky, clayey, and saline deserts. Separately, there are snowy or polar deserts, which are located in Antarctica and the Arctic.
Desert in Antarctica
The Antarctic desert includes all the land of Antarctica. This polar desert is not only the coldest of all, but also the driest. These 14 million square kilometers of continent are very poorly studied. To study the snowy desert, scientists study ice cores - these are long cylinders of ice obtained by drilling into the ice surface. Thanks to this, they can go back in time thousands of years and obtain information about the earth's climate during that period.
The Antarctic desert has a very harsh climate: in winter the temperature here drops to -70 degrees, and in summer - from -30 to -50 degrees. By the sea in the summer months (and summer here is in December, January and February) it is relatively warm here: 10-12 degrees. Moreover, the temperature rises so high also due to the reflection of heat from snow and ice. This phenomenon is called albedo.
There are oases near the coast in the Antarctic desert. However, if you imagined greenery and rivers flowing from underground, you were wrong again. This is just an ice-free area. Mosses and lichens grow here, and algae grow in the water. But, despite this unfavorable weather, there are inhabitants here.
So, Belgica Antarctica lives here - this is a wingless midge, its length does not exceed 1.3 centimeters. In addition, small ticks live here. And, of course, penguins. But it's not all birds. Three species of birds live here that are found nowhere else. These are the Snowy Plover, the Great Pipit and the Yellow-billed Pintail.
Sahara and second place
In second place in size is the Sahara. This is the largest sand desert: its area is approximately 9,100,000 square kilometers. Approximately the same area. The Sahara occupies the entire northern part of Africa and partially or completely covers as many as eleven countries, including Egypt, Niger, Algeria, Mali, Libya, Chad, Western Sahara and Sudan. The desert divides the African continent into two parts: North and Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Sahara extends from east to west over 1,600 kilometers in width and approximately 5,000 kilometers in length. It covers almost all parts of North Africa. Endless sands stretch from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coast, to the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.
Back in 4000 BC, the climate in modern Sahara was wetter, trees grew here, and there were many lakes. Then this territory underwent various atmospheric changes, which led to a change in climatic conditions.
If we talk about the climate of the Sahara today, then in the desert it is combined: in the north there are subtropics, and in the south there are tropics, the air is very dry and hot, and the nights are cold.
There are underground rivers that sometimes flow to the surface and form oases. Thanks to the increased humidity and warm air, the soil in the oases is very fertile and vegetation develops well here.
And, of course, most of the desert is occupied by sand: the dunes here reach 180 meters in height. The most interesting thing is that in winter, snow sometimes falls in this area, and you can often see snow caps on the mountain peaks.
But it’s scary here not only because of the heat: very strong winds blow in the Sahara, which bring multi-day storms.
The Sahara is also the leader in the number of mirages that arise. There is even a map of mirages that helps determine the places where they are most likely and most likely to appear.