long essay The desert
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Deserts
Desert is a large area of land that has very little water and very few plants growing on it. Many deserts are covered by send. However, when we think of a desert, we imagine hot, dry and barren areas without water. It is usually believed that desert is a region that receives very little rainfall but more precisely, a desert is a region where more water is lost through evaporation than is gained from rainfall.
Camels are known as, ‘ship of the deserts’. This is because they can move across desert sands easily. They provide as a mode of transportation for people in desert areas. They can eat almost anything and drink from waterholes that are bitter or salty. Waterholes are places in a hot region where animals go to drink water. Usually around the water source, a small area of desert oasis is found. It is an area of vegetation. Oases are formed from underground rivers. The water reaches the surface due to the pressure, of due to a special draw-well.
The Sahara in the Middle East is the largest desert in the world. It covers an area of 3,500,000 square miles and has a population of two million people. The Gobi-desert in Asia is considered to have the harshest climatic conditions with extreme temperature as low as 40° below the freezing point in winter to 100° Fahrenheit in the summer.
Deserts are areas that receive annual rainfall of less than 250 millimeters. Deserts have coarse textured soils due to the influence of weathering. Plants in the deserts are in the form of shrubs or thorny woody. The shrubs or stunted plants are short and thick. Animals in deserts have light coloured skin and birds have light colour feathers.
Most of the deserts in the world are located within two belts near the equator. High atmospheric pressure in these regions brings cold and dry air from the higher altitudes closer to land. The air is heated by the Sun and this causes low humidity and high ground temperature. Deserts are also formed by the rain shadow effect. This takes place where there are two mountain ranges on either sides. This prevents the ocean air from reaching the land.
Deserts can be classified in to four types. Hot and dry deserts are very hot throughout the year. They receive very less rainfall. Plants in such deserts consist of woody trees and ground shrubs. Animals in these deserts are nocturnal. They come out at night when the temperature is low. Semi-arid deserts are warmer with low amounts of rainfall. Cacti are their native plants. Lizards and small animals are also found here. Coastal deserts have a moderately ‘cool to warm environment. Such climate is suitable for certain plants, amphibians and other creatures. Cold deserts are sandy in nature. They are formed due to locations in far interior continental regions. The areas of extreme cold climate such as Antarctica and Arctic in Polar areas are regarded as cold deserts. In India, Ladakh is regarded as a cold desert
Explanati
Deserts are the area where there is a lot of sand. In the deserted areas, there is a lack of water. It is normally hot in deserts because sand is hot in in nature. Areas such as Rajasthan is deserted area. Thar desert is located in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. In the deserts, camels are found and hence they are known as the desert animal or the king of deserts. Plants such as cactus are found in deserts.
Deserts are the driest place on earth and sometimes go for months ,or even years without rain.But even the desert animals cannot survive without water, or for long periods in the scorching sun so they have had to find different ways of coping with the harsh conditions.For example,gerbils spend the hottest part of the day in cool underground burrows. And strange insects called darkling beetles are experts as catching drops of moisture on their legs,then lifting them into the air until the drops trickle down into their mouths. Not all deserts are endless seas of rolling sand dunes. Some are rocky or pebbly and dotted with small bushes while others are sprinkled with colourful flowers during the spring.