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What is the largest desert in the world? Interesting facts about the largest desert

Deserts are natural zones, characterized by flat surfaces, a small amount of flora or its complete absence. Often they have a rather specific fauna. Deserts can be sandy, stony, clayey and solonchak. Snow (arctic) is isolated. According to the nature of the soil and soil, there are nine species, and according to the dynamic precipitation, three.

Sahara

What is the largest desert in the world? There are many of them on the planet. But really large among them is not so much. And the biggest desert in the world is the Sahara. It is located in the north of Africa. Its area is more than 8.5 million square meters. Km. It is almost 1/3 of the continent. Despite the harsh conditions, its territory is home to approximately 2.5 million people. But still the population density there is the lowest on the 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. The scientists established that 6000 years ago this desert "lived" - it had trees, gardens and a lot of lakes. But over time it changed. According to the latest research of the scientific community, the majority are inclined to believe that the Sahara "deserted" only 2.7 thousand years ago.

Territorial "highlights"

There are several countries in the Sahara - Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Chad, Niger, Sudan and Western Sahara. Studies show that the desert area is unstable. It is constantly changing. From satellites received data that the Sahara periodically increases or decreases.

Curious facts about the Sahara

In some places of this desert in the day you can fry eggs on the hot sand, and at night right there the thermometer can go down to minus ten. Therefore, in past centuries, trade caravans moved through the desert only at night, and in the daytime they broke 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 the volatility is much higher than the precipitation: in the ratio - from 2000 to 5000 mm / 100 mm.

Under the Sahara is a huge underground lake, which is even larger than Lake Baikal, and oases exist precisely because of it. Sand in the desert is not so much - only 1/5, and the rest of the territory is covered with stony ground, and quite a bit - sand and pebble and simple pebble wastelands.

The sandy cover of the desert is approximately 150 meters in depth, and the largest sand dunes are similar in height to the Eiffel Tower. And if all of humanity is going to scoop out the Sahara's sand, then each of them will have more than 3 million buckets.

Strong winds are constantly blowing in the desert. For the whole year there are only twenty windless days. Khamsin - one of the most famous winds in the desert, translates as "fifty", which indicates how quickly it blows. Interestingly, this coincides with the Egyptian wind season, which lasts for as many days.

Mirages

The largest desert in the world has an interesting phenomenon - mirages, which were previously thought to arise anywhere, but it turns out that they have a permanent location. And for today even there is a special card on which they are applied.

It is also interesting that at the same time a full description of the mirage on this place is given - a palace, a well, a mountain ridge, an oasis, a palm grove. Each of them, basically, is constant. Each year, they are observed up to 160 thousand. Mirage can have several options - wandering, vertical, stable and horizontal.

Flora and fauna of the Sahara

Of the plants here, mainly, semi-shrubs and shrubs predominate. On the south side are ephemeroids and ephemerals. Animals move quickly, with the ability to dig sand (having hair brushes on their paws, claws, setae).

The largest desert on earth is famous for a place called the Valley of Death. It is considered to be the hottest and driest place on earth.

Despite tough living conditions, many species of flora and fauna inhabit the Sahara: 545 plants, 12 amphibians, 13 fish (in oasis lakes), and more than 80 mammals and reptiles.

The largest deserts of the world: captivating and dangerous

Sahara is not the only big desert in the world, there are almost equal to it. There are nine large deserts on our planet. All of them are smaller in area than the Sahara, but in relation to the rest - much more. On each continent there is a similar representative of the area.

The largest desert in the world after the Sahara is the Arabian one. Its territory is 2 330 000 square meters. M. And it captures the territory of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Syria. Basically, this desert is uninhabited because of the strongest winds and sandstorms, and the temperature fluctuations here are quite large. In the sand, the egg can be roasted in just 10 minutes. And at night, even from the cold, even the stones give cracks.

The Gobi Desert is located on the lands of China and Mongolia. Bert started from the Altai mountains. Its territory is 166 000 sq. M. Km. If you translate its name, it will sound like a "waterless place".

The desert of Australia is the next largest (647,000 sq. Km.) Large desert of the planet. It is here that you can meet the famous red dunes, whose height reaches 40 meters.

Kalahari in translation is "excruciating". Its territory is 600 thousand square meters. Km. But its area is constantly increasing, capturing the territory of Botswana, Angola, Zambia and Zambia.

Karakum means "black sands". Its territory is 350 thousand square meters. Km. The height of ridges can reach 60 meters. This desert is located in most of Turkmenistan. Because of the shallow vegetation that prevails there, the locals adapted it as a pasture for cattle.

Takla-Makan is located in Central Asia, its territory is 337,600 sq. Km. Km. There in 2008, not only observed very low temperatures, but even snowfall!

Many people ask themselves which desert is the largest among the salt. It can be answered that Salar-da-Uyuni is considered to be the greatest in the world. In its territory salt is estimated in billions of tons. And passing rains, dissolving it, turn the desert into a huge mirror.

Atacama is the largest desert in Chile. This is the most arid place on earth. Plants, however, were able to adapt, having developed their own ways of surviving in this place. When drought, they refuse even the functions of reproduction and growth.

Antarctica is the largest desert in the world, consisting of ice. Its area is more than 14 million square meters. Km. And surprisingly, it is this desert that is considered the driest place on the planet. There is an explanation - all moisture "dries out" the cold, and the precipitation here does not exceed 4 cm per year. And in 1983 the life was marked by its lowest temperature - 89 degrees Celsius.

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