desert called natural zones, characterized by a flat surface, a small amount of flora or its complete absence.Often they present fairly specific fauna.Deserts are sandy, rocky, clayey and saline.Snow (Arctic) is isolated separately.By the nature of the soil and the soil they are nine species, and the dynamic precipitation - three.
Sahara
What is the biggest desert in the world?On the planet there are a lot of them.But the really big among them not so much.And the biggest desert in the world - it's sugar.It is located in the north of Africa.Its area - more than 8.5 million square feet.km.It's almost 1/3 of the continent.Despite the harsh conditions in its territory is home to about 2.5 million people.But still there is the population density is the lowest in the land.Major peoples living on its territory, - the Berbers and Tuaregs.
Age Sahara
Few people know that this desert is much "younger" than many people believe.It is believed that the Sahara five and a half thousand years.The scientists found that 6,000 years ago, the desert is "lived" - there were trees, gardens and lots of lakes.But over time, it has changed.According to recent studies of the scientific community, most inclined to believe that the Sahara "opustynilas" only 2.7 thousand. Years ago.
Local "flavor»
the Sahara is just a few states - Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Chad, Niger, Sudan and Western Sahara.Studies show that the desert area is unstable.It is constantly changing.Data obtained from satellites that Sahara periodically increases or decreases.
Interesting facts about Sahara
In some places of the desert in the afternoon you can fry an egg on the hot sand, but at night right there thermometer can drop to minus ten.Therefore, in the past century, caravans traveled through the desert only in the dark, and the day broke tents and rested.
addition to the usual information about the Sahara, there are a number of interesting facts.There she and another feature - it is one of the few rare places on the planet where evaporation is much higher than rainfall: in the ratio - from 2,000 to 5,000 mm / 100 mm.
Under Sahara has a huge underground lake, which is even more than the lake, and oases exist thanks to him.Sand in the desert is not so much - only 1/5, and the rest of the territory occupied by the rocky land, and quite a bit - sand and pebble and simple pebble wasteland.
desert sand cover is approximately 150 meters in depth, and the largest sand dunes in height like the Eiffel Tower.And if all of humanity will gather scoop the sand of the Sahara, then each of them will have more than 3 million buckets.
In the desert constantly blowing strong winds.For the full year is only twenty windless days.Khamsin - one of the most famous wind in the desert, translated as "fifty", which tells how he quickly blowing.Interestingly, this coincides with the Egyptian season winds that lasts for many days.
Mirages
biggest desert in the world has an interesting phenomenon - a mirage that was previously considered arise anywhere, but it turns out they have a permanent location.And even today there is a special card, which they are applied.
is interesting and the fact that at the same time give a complete description of a mirage in this place - a palace, well, a mountain range oasis palm grove.Each of them is substantially constant.Each year, they observed up to 160 thousand.Mirages can have several options - wandering, vertical, horizontal and stable.
flora and fauna of the Sahara
Because plants are mostly dominated by shrubs and bushes.On the south side - ephemeroids and ephemera.Animals moving quickly, with the ability to dig the sand (with the hair brush on the feet, claws, bristles).
largest desert on earth famous place called Death Valley.It is considered the hottest and driest place on earth.
Despite the harsh living conditions in the territory of the Sahara inhabited by many species of flora and fauna: 545 plants, 12 amphibians, 13 fish (lake oases) and more than 80 mammals and reptiles.
biggest desert in the world: fascinating and dangerous
Sahara - is not the only big desert in the world, there are almost equal to her.There are on this planet has nine large deserts.They are all over the area less sugar, but in relation to other - much more.Every continent has a similar representative areas.
biggest desert in the world after the Sahara - Arabian.Its territory is square 2330000.m. And it captures the territory of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Syria.Basically, this desert is uninhabitable because of the strong winds and sandstorms, and temperature variations are quite large.The sand can fry an egg in just 10 minutes.At night, the cold, even the stones give a crack.
Gobi Desert is located on the lands of China and Mongolia.Burt sat down to her from the Altai Mountains.Its territory of 166 000 sq.km.If we translate the name, it will sound like a "waterless place."
Desert Australia - is the next area (647,000 sq. Km), the largest deserts in the world.It is here that you can find the famous red dunes, which reach heights of 40-meters.
Kalahari in translation - "painful."Its territory is 600 thousand square meters.km.But its area increasing all the time, capturing the territory of Botswana, Angola, Zambia and Zambabve.
Karakum translated means "black sands".Its area is 350 thousand square meters.km.The height of the ridges can reach 60 meters.This desert is located in most parts of Turkmenistan.Because of the small vegetation that prevails there, the locals have adapted it as pasture for cattle.
Taklamakan is located in Central Asia, the territory of its 337,600 square meters.km.There in 2008, not only to observe very low temperatures, and even snowfall!
Many wonder what the desert is the largest among the salt?To this we can answer that yes Salar Uyuni is considered the greatest in the world.Its territory amounts to billions of tons of salt.A passing rain, dissolving it, turn the desert into a huge mirror.
Atacama - the largest desert in Chile.This is the driest place on earth.Plants nonetheless been able to adapt, having developed their own ways to survive in this place.When drought they refuse even the functions of reproduction and growth.
Antarctica - the largest desert in the world, consisting of ice.Its area of more than 14 million square feet.km.And surprisingly, it is this desert is considered the driest place on the planet.There is also an explanation - any moisture "dry out" cold and rain here does not exceed 4 cm per year.But 1983 marked the lowest life its temperature - 89 degrees Celsius.
