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The World's Most Interesting Desert's • Vol. 19: #41 • Tidbits of Coachella Valley
Every continent on Earth is home to a desert. This week Tidbits travels the world to gather some interesting facts that you likely never knew about these unique and arid ecosystems. So, grab a map and follow along as we learn that while many deserts are hot, some are also record-breaking cold spots!
• Although the word “desert” might bring vast expanses of vacant land, it may surprise you to learn that only about 20 percent of the world's deserts are covered by sand.
• Deserts actually cover about one-fifth Earth’s land area and contain one-sixth of the world’s population. In order to be classified desert, an area must receive less than ten inches of rain per year.
• There are two scientific categories of deserts: Arid, receiving less than ten inches of precipitation per year, and semi-arid, which annually receive between ten and 20 inches of rain.
• Although we think of deserts as hot, sandy expanses, there are cold deserts as well. These fall in the “less than ten inches” category. In fact, the world’s largest desert is on that list.
COLD DESERTS
• The Antarctic Desert, covering an area of 5.5 million square miles, is about 1.3 times larger than the European continent, and is itself an entire desert continent. Even though this desert receives some precipitation through snowfall and slight drizzles during the warmer months, its annual precip is less than 20 inches.
• Although the annual rainfall is not high, the accumulated ice of the Antarctic Desert over thousands of years contains about 90 percent of the entire Earth’s fresh water, permanently frozen in its polar ice sheet.
• The Russian research station Vostok sits on 2.3 miles of ice on the polar plateau, and it was here that the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth, -128.6° F, was measured in 1983. Its average winter temperature is -56.2° F.
• The world’s second-largest desert, the Arctic, is also a polar desert, encompassing an area of 62,300 square miles around the North Pole. Its lowest recorded temperature is -90.4°F
• During the summer, the sun doesn’t set at all for 60 days in this “Land of the Midnight Sun,” and is followed by a period when the sun doesn’t rise at all. Yet about 700 plant species and 120
animal species subsist in the Arctic Desert, as well as a large population of Inuit people, who have adapted their lives to the brutal conditions of the Arctic.
• Asia’s Gobi Desert takes its name from the Mongolian word meaning “waterless place.” As the world’s sixth-largest desert, it stretches 500,000 square miles across southern Mongolia and northern and northeastern China.
• The Gobi receives an average of 7.6 inches of rain a year. Although the Gobi is classified as a cold desert, with average winter temps of about -6° F and the frequent occurrence of -40° F, this desert does have warm summer temperatures reaching as high as 81°F. Most of the Gobi’s topography is bare rock, with about five percent covered by sand dunes that are dusted with frost during the winter months.
• The Gobi desert is a treasure trove of fossils, and is renowned for the first discovery of dinosaur eggs during a 1923 expedition. Twenty-six eggs, averaging nine inches in length were uncovered along with the first known skull of a Protoceratops in the Mongolian desert.
HOT DESERTS
• Africa’s Sahara Desert is the world’s largest hot desert, and the third-largest desert overall. Covering much of North Africa, and part of 11 different countries, its area is about 3.6 million square miles, almost the size of the entire United States.
• Sand dunes cover 25 percent of the Sahara, with many reaching heights of over 590 feet. About 390,000 square miles of this desert in areas of Libya, Egypt, and Sudan receive no rainfall at all. The Sahara is considered the hottest place on Earth, with continuous average temperatures between 104° F and 116° F. During the day, the temperature of the sand easily reaches 175° F. The Sahara’s nighttime temperature is about 30 degrees cooler than the daytime.
• The driest desert in the world is found in Chile, stretching for 990 miles west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert receives an average precipitation of just 0.039 inches annually. Some parts of the Atacama have never received rainfall since records began. Experts believe that there was no significant rainfall from 1570 to 1971. Even their towering mountains of nearly 22,600 feet have no glaciers. It may be the driest place on Earth, but that doesn’t stop one million people from living there. Its inhabitants tap water from underground streams to grow their crops and support their herds of llamas and alpacas.
• Measuring just one square mile, the Canadian Yukon’s Carcross Desert is the smallest desert in the world. Located along the Klondike Highway, it’s a system of sand dunes nestled in the midst of towering mountains, lakes, and waterfalls. The fine-grain sands produce unusual and rare plants, found in very few other locations.
• The Carcross Desert was formed when glacial lakes and valleys dried up and strong winds blew in large amounts of sand that collects on the dunes. The Carcross is a semi-arid desert, receiving less than 19.7 inches of precipitation annually.
• An oasis is a welcome site to desert travelers. These lush green areas are irrigated by natural springs or underground water sources that seep to the surface. While small oases might be just 2.5 acres, large ones have established cities surrounding them. Some have been created by digging into the desert seeking a water source, while others dig a well around an existing oasis. Date palms are a frequent sight around these verdant areas. There are 90 major oases within the Sahara Desert, but thousands of smaller ones also exist.
• The Sahara is home to several deadly animals including the Deathstalker scorpion, the venomous sand viper, monitor lizards, and African wild dogs.
The Deathstalker scorpion, just three inches long, has a life expectancy of 25 years. Their venom can cause paralysis and respiratory failure, and are the main species responsible for the 2,600 scorpion sting deaths each year. The only good news is that many Deathstalker attacks are survivable.
