Introduction
A Desert is a dry, hot, sandy and usually a barren piece of land mostly uninhabited. Deserts cover about one fifth of the Earth's surface and occur where rainfall is less than 50 cm/year. Very little precipitation occurs in deserts and hence they are hostile for plant and animal life due to lack of water. They are primarily classified as "hot" or "cold", "semiarid" or "coastal" based on temperatures and amount of rainfall the deserts receive.
Only about 20% of the deserts on Earth are covered in sand. Areas covered in ice or snow can sometimes be called 'cold deserts', and 'hot deserts' have high temperatures in summer; & greater evaporation than precipitation. The largest cold desert on Earth is Antarctica. The largest hot desert on Earth is the Sahara.
Deserts
Deserts of the World - Famous Desert on the Planet Earth
| Name | Type | Area (km2) | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antarctica | Cold Winter | 14,000,000 | Antarctica |
| Arabian Desert | Subtropical | 2,330,000 | Western Asia (Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab) |
| Atacama Desert | Cool Coastal | 140,000 | South America (Chile and Peru) |
| Arctic | Cold Winter | 13,985,000 | Arctic (Alaska, Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden) |
| Chihuahuan Desert | Subtropical | 450,000 | North America (Mexico and United States) |
| Colorado Plateau | Cold Winter | 337,000 | United States |
| Dasht-e Margo | Subtropical | 150,000 | Afghanistan |
| Dasht-e Kavir | Subtropical | 77,000 | Iran |
| Dasht-e Loot | Subtropical | 52,000 | Iran |
| Gobi Desert | Cold Winter | 1,000,000 | Central Asia (Mongolia) |
| Great Victoria Desert | Subtropical | 647,000 | Australia |
| Great Basin Desert | Cold Winter | 492,000 | United States |
| Great Sandy Desert | Subtropical | 400,000 | Australia |
| Gibson Desert | Subtropical | 156,000 | Australia |
| Kalahari Desert | Subtropical | 900,000 | Southern Africa (Angola, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa) |
| Karakum Desert | Cold Winter | 350,000 | Turkmenistan |
| Kyzylkum Desert | Cold Winter | 300,000 | Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) |
| Mojave Desert | Subtropical | 124,000 | United States |
| Namib Desert | Cool Coastal | 81,000 | Southern Africa (Angola and Namibia) |
| Patagonian Desert | Cold Winter | 620,000 | South America (Argentina and Chile) |
| Registan Desert | Subtropical | 146,000 | Afghanistan |
| Sahara | Subtropical | 9,000,000+ | Africa (Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger,Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara) |
| Syrian Desert | Subtropical | 520,000 | Western Asia (Iraq, Jordan, and Syria) |
| Sandy Desert | Subtropical | 400,000 | Australia |
| Sonoran Desert | Subtropical | 310,000 | North America (Mexico and United States) |
| Simpson Desert | Subtropical | 145,000 | Australia |
| Taklamakan Desert | Cold Winter | 270,000 | China |
| Thar Desert | Subtropical | 200,000 | South Asia (India, Pakistan) |