Deserts—What and Where
by Sarah Canzoneri
The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert. A desert is an area that is very dry. Any region that usually gets less than ten inches of precipitation (rain or snow) a year is a desert. Ten inches a year is not much: New York City gets about 42 inches a year; Orlando, Florida, gets 51 inches. Some deserts get no rain at all for years at a time.
Many people think that deserts are always hot and sandy, but they are not. Antarctica is a polar desert. Even larger than the Sahara, it is cold and has no sand at all—only ice and snow. Some deserts are hot in the day and cold at night. In the Sahara, the temperature can be 120°F during the day and 20°F at night. Some deserts have seasons with cold winter days and nights.
About one third of the land on Earth is desert, and there are deserts all over the world. Earth isn't the only planet with deserts. All of Mars is a desert, and Venus may have deserts, too.
- World's driest desert: The Atacama
- World's oldest desert: The Namib
- World's largest hot desert: The Sahara
- World's largest sand dune area: The Empty Quarter
- World's largest polar desert: Antarctica
- World's lowest spot: In the Negev Desert
- World's highest temperature: In the eastern Sahara
- What is a desert?
[anno: A desert is an area that is very dry.]
- Are all deserts hot?
- Why would it be difficult for a plant or an animal to live in a desert? How would this affect the food chain found in a desert? Write a few sentences to explain your answer.
[anno: It would be difficult for a plant or an animal to live in a desert because there is very little rain. Since there is little rain, fewer plants can grow. Since fewer plants can grow, fewer animals would be able to live off the plants found in a desert.]