Our planet is rich in fertile soils, endless meadows, majestic forests, rivers and lakes, seas and oceans. However, a significant territory of the Earth is occupied by the deserts of the world. Together, they captured a quarter of the entire land surface, while their area is increasing every year.
Their main feature is the absence of dense vegetation cover. The reason for this - high temperatures during the day, low - at night. It is this climatic factor that does not allow representatives of the flora to develop in their wide variety. This applies to sandy, rocky and clay deserts.
There are deserts of the world, the surface of which is covered with a thick layer of ice. These are Antarctica and the Arctic. A characteristic feature of these areas are relatively low temperatures throughout the year. Antarctica is the largest in size on the entire globe. It occupies the first place in the list of large deserts. The Arctic settled in third position.
The deserts of Africa include the Sahara, Namib and Kalahari. The first of them is the most extensive after the ice colossus. This sandy and rocky wasteland with a subtropical climate stretches for a gigantic distance, affecting the territories of eleven African countries.
The fauna of the desert is represented by only a few species. In conditions of sharply changing day and night temperatures and with the almost complete absence of any vegetation, camels, snakes, monitor lizards, scorpions survive and feel great here. However, the Sahara can boast of having its own exotic animal: among the sands and rocks lives a small nimble fennec fox, called the "Sahara fox".
The deserts of the world are the most sparsely populated territories on the planet. This is not surprising, because people are attracted by the availability of vital resources, the main of which is water. Therefore, no matter how much the desert attracts a person, the lack of important natural resources makes his existence in such conditions almost impossible.
Many registans have groundwater, sometimes coming to the surface. As a rule, oases are formed in such places. It is around them that life begins to boil. It is worth noting that sometimes these places attract a huge number of not only Bedouins and nomads, but also tourists. For example, the Huacachina oasis, located in the Peruvian Atacama Desert, is a small village whose population lives on the shores of a natural lake formed by groundwater. Visiting tourists and residents of the nearby town love to relax here.
The deserts of the world keep a huge number of secrets and mysteries. However, at present, these giant sandy and rocky registans are used in industrial and scientificpurposes. So, the American Mojave Desert, located in California, is the location of a huge number of solar power plants. Another country, Jordan, boasts successful use of desert land for planting crops.
