A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Deserts cover about one fifth (20 percent) of the earth's land area. Deserts may contain great amounts of mineral resources over their entire surface.
10. Great Basin Desert
Type:- Cold Winter
Area:- 492,000 km²
Great Basin is a cold desert bioregion represented by a small section in the NE corner of Kern County. The Great Basin Desert is an area of nearctic high deserts. The Great Basin Desert exists because of the "rainshadow effect" created by the Sierra Nevada Mountains of eastern California. Typically Great Basin Desert experiences a long, cold winter and a significant proportion of its precipitation falls as snow. This desert is one of the several communities comprising Merriam's Upper Sonoran Life Zone.
9. Syrian Desert
Type:- Subtropical
Area:- 520,000 km²
The Syrian Desert is a combination of steppe and true desert that is located in the northern Arabian Peninsula receiving on the average less than 5 inches (125 mm) of rainfall annually. The south central part of the desert is called Al Hamad. In the north it is bounded by the region known as the Fertile Crescent. The desert was historically inhabited by bedouin tribes, and many tribes still remain in the region, their members living mainly in towns and settlements built near oases. Some bedouin still maintain their traditional way of life in the desert.
8. Great Victoria Desert
Type:- Subtropical
Area:- 647,000 km²
The Great Victoria is the largest Australian desert. A vast, sparsely populated region covered by dunefields and gibber plains, the Great Victoria Desert receives little rain and experiences extreme temperatures. The vast Great Victoria Desert extends from the Eastern Goldfields area in Western Australia across the southern parts of central Australia to the Stuart and Gawler Ranges in South Australia. The climate is arid, with mean annual rainfall ranging from below 150 millimeters (mm) to over 250 mm.
7. Patagonian Desert
Type:-Cold Winter
Area:- 670,000 km²
Patagonian Desert is located primarily in Argentina with small parts in Chile and is bounded by the Andes, to its west, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east, in the region of Patagonia, southern Argentina. If you take a walk through the Patagonian desert you will spot several types of plant life from simple daisies to exotic flowers, such as the Patagonian fire bush. The desert has hosted various indigenous peoples in its past, as evidenced by cave paintings in the area. The area is sparsely populated today and those that do live here survive mainly by the raising of livestock such as sheep and goats.
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6. Kalahari Desert
Type:- Subtropical
Area:- 900,000 km²
The Kalahari Desert is a large arid to semi-arid sandy area in Southern Africa extending 900,000 square kilometres (350,000 sq mi), covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa. The Kalahari, covered largely by reddish sand, lies between the Orange and Zambezi rivers and is studded with dry lake beds. Only in recent geological history, 10 to 20,000 years ago, were the dunes stabilised through vegetation, so the area should actually be called a dry savannah. Unlike the dunes of the Namib Desert, those of the Kalahari are stable and not wandering.
5. Gobi Desert
Type:- Cold Winter
Area:- 1,300,000 km²
The Gobi is a large desert region in Asia. It covers parts of northern and northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia. Temperatures can fall as far minus-40 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter. During Summers the heat occasionally rises to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Unlike the Sahara there are few sand dunes in the Gobi; rather you'll find large barren expenses of gravel plains and rocky outcrops. t contains the last remaining wild Bacterian (two-humped) camels, wild ass, and a small population of Gobi bears, the only desert-inhabiting bear.
4. Arabian Desert
Type:- Subtropical
Area:- 2,330,000 km²
The Arabian Desert encompasses almost the entire Arabian Peninsula, blanketing the area in sandy terrain and seasonal winds. The Arabian Desert is a vast desert wilderness stretching from Yemen to the Persian Gulf and Oman to Jordan and Iraq. The Arabian Desert is hyper arid with average rainfall of about 1.38 inches per annum. Temperatures range from 104° to 122° Fahrenheit in the summer, to an average temperature of 41° to 59° Fahrenheit in the winter.
3. Sahara
Type:- Subtropical
Area:- 9 100,000+ km²
The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert. The word "Sahara" means "desert" in the Arabic language. Due to the massive size of the Sahara, Africa is split into two regions: that which lies above or forms part of the Sahara and the rest of Africa south of the Sahara. On the west, the Sahara is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and on the east by the Red Sea, and to the north are the Atlas Mountains and Mediterranean Sea. Some of the sand dunes can reach 180 metres (590 ft) in height.
2. Arctic
Type:- Polar
Area:- 13,700,000+ km²
The Arctic Basin is one of the driest parts of the Arctic. Most of the Basin receives less than 250 mm of precipitation per year, qualifying it as a desert. Imagine yourself standing on some of the northern-most reaches of land in the world. During most of the year your feet would most likely be resting on ice and snow, and if you turned around in a circle, ice and snow are probably all that you would see. But this land is not lifeless. The Arctic Desert ecoregion is home to several hardy species of birds and mammals.
1. Antarctic Desert
Type:- Polar
Area:- 13,829,430 km²
Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, at the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctic region of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. The nearest other land masses are South America 600 mls / 1000 km. In the winter Antarctica doubles in size due to the sea ice that forms around the coasts. The true boundary of Antarctica is not the coastline of the continent itself or the outlying islands, but the Antarctic Convergence. Enough said.
