Great Sandy Desert (Western Australia): description, area, features

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

In the north-west of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia, there is the Great Sandy Desert, or, as it is also called, the Western Desert. The article will briefly describe the features, climate, flora and fauna of this geographical object.

Location

Where is the Great Sandy Desert? The map above shows the approximate center of this object. It has the appearance of an elongated patch with irregular outlines, which approximately coincides with the boundaries of the Canning sedimentary basin. Its area is about 360 thousand square meters. km. From west to east, the Great Sandy Desert stretches for 900 kilometers, from north to south - for 600. It starts from the coast, from the world-famous Eighty Mile Beach, and extends inland, located west of another Australian desert - Tanami.

In the south, this desert extends to the so-called Tropic of Capricorn and passes into the Gibson Desert,located in the central part of the state of Western Australia, the least populated on the continent, and having a much more modest size. The Great Sandy Desert itself on the mainland is the second largest and second only to the Victoria Desert, whose area is about 400 thousand square meters. km.

It is considered the most unsuitable for life territory on the globe. For the first time travelers from Europe visited the desert in 1873. An expedition led by Major Warburton crossed it from east to west. To these people the Great Sandy Desert owes its first description. Another traveler, Frank Hann, in the late 90s of the XIX century, carefully studied the Pilbara region and gave the name to some geographical objects. They laid the foundation for the study of the Great, or, as it is also called, the Red Australian Desert.

Origin, education

This desert in Australia is saline. This means that it was formed from intensely evaporating, highly mineralized groundwater occurring at relatively shallow depths, or from marine sediment s alts. And this one is really true, although it is hard to believe: many millions of years ago, in the Devonian period, on the site of a desert space, an ocean stretched, in which life was in full swing. The Canning Basin is one of the best preserved fossils of the Devonian giant barrier reef.

Relief features

The terrain gently decreases to the north and west, and its height above sea level isthis part of the desert is about 300 meters, and in the south - 400-500 meters. The flat terrain offers views of the rocky hills rising in the Pilbara region and the Kimberley region. A characteristic feature of this desert in Australia is the ridges of sand dunes from 10-12 to 30 meters high, which are up to 50 meters long and stretched from west to east, parallel to each other, over a vast territory. Their location is determined by the direction of the winds. The sand in the desert has a red tint. Between the ridges are saline plains with sparse vegetation.

Another feature is the presence of numerous s alt marshes, sometimes formed in a chain. In the south, the most famous s alt marsh lake Disappointment, in the east - Mackay. Despite the dry climate, they occasionally fill with water due to frequent rains and thunderstorms in the corresponding season, from November to April. In addition, the Gregory S alt Flats, for example, is fed by a river called Sturt Creek. However, the huge rate of evaporation of moisture, due to high average daily temperatures, nullifies even the amount of moisture that is quite abundant for a desert (200 mm per year in the south, up to 450 in the north) that this area receives. The rest of the water quickly seeps through the sands and goes underground.

Climate features

In Australia, this area is the hottest. So, in the hottest months in the Southern Hemisphere, from December to February, the daytime temperature here reaches 35-42 degrees Celsius, rising to the south. In winter, it drops to 20 degrees or less.above zero, and at night even frosts are possible. It has a typical dry continental climate.

Plant world

Vegetation in this area, as one would expect, is quite poor. In desert conditions, only plants with special adaptations can survive - long roots, strong stems, hard leaves or thorns. So, spinifex grows on the sand dunes themselves, a xerophytic cereal with sharp spines and a tough stem, unsuitable even for livestock feed. Here you can also find the evergreen flowering grevillea, which the natives love to eat because of its sweet nectar. Between the dunes, on clayey s alt marshes, in the northern part of the desert, undersized eucalyptus trees mainly grow, and in the south - acacia bushes.

Most of the plants of the Great Sandy Desert have a shortened period of flowering and seed maturation. They wait out an unfavorable dry time in a dormant state and instantly germinate after rainfall in order to have time to give seeds and fall back into dormancy.

Animal world

The fauna of the desert is a bit more diverse than the flora. Here you can find both endemic species - dingo dogs, red kangaroos, comb-tailed mice, and those introduced after the discovery of the continent by Europeans. Among them, for example, camels, which have perfectly taken root on the continent, as well as sheep, whose pastures are located in the northern part of the area, along the coast. Two endemic species, the northern marsupial mole and the rabbit bandicoot, are on the so-called red list. International Union for Conservation of Nature. The first of them is recognized as an endangered species, the second is vulnerable, in need of protection.

Birds are mainly represented by several species of parrots. Several species of passerines and finches can be found near the s alt marshes and the rivers flowing into them.

The most extensive list of reptiles. Among them are several species of geckos, the Moloch lizard (endemic); snakes, including those deadly to humans because of their venom (Acanthopis pyrrhus). Of the insects in this area, termites, ants, beetles, grasshoppers, butterflies, desert scorpions (Cercophonius squama) have learned to survive.

Population

There is no permanent population in this region as such, and there is nothing strange in this, given the local conditions. Here you can meet only a few groups of natives of the Ngina and Karadyeri tribes, wandering from place to place in search of food and water. According to the natives themselves, they have the ability to find water lenses in the desert.

Across the desert in a northeasterly direction, along an old cattle route called Canning, there is now a tourist route, so tourists can also be found in this area, albeit extremely rarely.