What is A Desert

The landscape of deserts vary greatly; but all deserts have 1 thing in common . They are all extremely dry, and can be one of the harshest places on earth .

Many deserts have extremes in temperature, with very high temperatures in the day and cold temperatures at night .

Deserts are not only made of sand as many people think. They consist of rocks, mountains, and sand. Desert sands are often rock which has weathered down to sand over the centuries.

There are 3 main ways in which a desert can be made. Deserts are formed because of lack of water.

1) Arid or dry regions are caused by not being near a large body of water.

2) Inland areas lack moisture from the air.

3) Mountains may prevent rain from reaching areas making the areas dry and after awhile a desert.

There are many deserts on the earth's surface. The largest desert is the Sahara desert found in north Africa. The largest continuous stretch of sand is called the Empty Quarter which is part of the Arabian Desert that stretches 250,000 sq. miles .

Not all desert area have no rainfall , occasionally rainfall can turn some areas of desert into pockets of green areas . Today vast areas of desert are green as a result of pumping water from deep bore wells.

Some plants and animals are able to exist in the desert. They are often able to survive by avoiding the driest times and only growing after the rains. A plant may spring up from a dormant seed after the rain and some adapt to the small amount of rainfall and are able to live, like the cacti, who can store water. A Spade foot tadpole often spends most of its time buried in the sand.

Insects have also learned to adapt to desert live and survive the dry times as eggs or pupae. Some ants store seed to eat during the dry seasons. they also avoid the heat by often coming out only at night.

Reptile on the other hand do well in the desert because they control their body temperature by gaining or losing heat from their surroundings . They use less energy and need less food.

Small mammals like hamsters and mice can also live in the desert by living in burrows . The temperature in the burrows does not change like the surface. They can also store their food in the burrows. They might only come out at night when it is cool.

Larger mammals such as the hedgehog and fox also stay in the burrows and only come out at night to search for food.

Camels are one of the few animals which seem to be designed to survive in the desert . They can go for days without water and are able to eat the tough desert plants. They store in their humps which help them survive.

Whether an animal or and insect or a human it seem a lot of adapting need to be done to survive and live in the desert.

Part of the Sahara desert is located in Egypt .