The World's Deserts

A desert is a barren area of land where little precipitation occurs and consequently living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. About one third of the land surface of the world is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the polar regions where little precipitation occurs and which are sometimes called polar deserts or "cold deserts". The deserts found on Earth are extremely diverse, each unique in their own way. The dunes of the Saharan Desert, the icy tundra of Antarctica, and the Pacific coastline of the Atacama Desert are all deserts. 

There are four different types of deserts based upon their geographic situation:

1.  Polar deserts (Ex: Arctic & Antarctic)

2. Subtropical deserts (Ex: Sahara, Kalahari, Arabian, Great Victoria etc.)

3. Cold winter deserts (Ex: Great Basin, Gobi etc.)

4. Cool coastal deserts (Ex: Namib, Atacama)

The largest deserts in the world are polar deserts. The Antarctic Polar Desert is the largest and covers the continent of Antarctica and has a size of about 5.5 million square miles. The second-largest desert is the Arctic Polar Desert. It has a surface area of about 5.4 million square miles. 

Sahara is the third largest desert overall, and the largest “hot desert” in the world. This desert comprises most of the land in North Africa. The Arabian Desert is situated on the Arabian peninsula, and makes up parts of Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Both the Sahara and Arabian Deserts are known for their sand and sand dunes. The center of Arabian Desert, Rub ’al-Khali, the “Empty Quarter”, forms the largest continuous body of sand in the world.

The Gobi is termed as a “rain shadow desert”, as it is in the lee-ward side of the Himalaya ranges which block the rain (“rain shadow”), keeping clouds from the Indian Ocean from reaching Gobi. Most of the Gobi’s surface is not sandy, but rather exposed, bare rock. It is a cold desert and snow occasionally will accumulate on its dunes. Kalahari is a vast, semi-arid savanna in southern Africa.  It happens to get significantly more rainfall and support more diverse life than its counterparts.

 

 

 List of Deserts their types and Location (Country, Continent)

Name	Type of Desert	Location
Antarctic	Polar	Antarctica
Arctic	Polar	Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia
Sahara	Subtropical	Northern Africa
Arabian	Subtropical	Arabian Peninsula
Gobi	Cold Winter	China and Mongolia
Patagonian	Cold Winter	Argentina
Great Victoria	Subtropical	Australia
Kalahari	Subtropical	South Africa, Botswana, Namibia
Great Basin	Cold Winter	United States
Syrian	Subtropical	Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia
Chihuahuan	Subtropical	Mexico
Great Sandy	Subtropical	Australia
Kara-Kum	Cold Winter	Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan
Colorado Plateau	Cold Winter	United States
Gibson	Subtropical	Australia
Sonoran	Subtropical	United States, Mexico
Kyzyl-Kum	Cold Winter	Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan
Taklamakan	Cold Winter	China
Iranian	Cold Winter	Iran
Thar	Subtropical	India, Pakistan
Simpson	Subtropical	Australia
Mojave	Subtropical	United States
Atacama	Cool Coastal	Chile
Namib	Cool Coastal	Angola, Namibia, South Africa

Source: G K Planet