CHAPTER TWO
Different Deserts
More than 20 percent of the land on Earth is desert. There are many different deserts.
The Sahara Desert, in North Africa, is the biggest hot desert on Earth. It’s 9 million square kilometers — that’s about as big as the USA! The Sahara has sand dunes, rocks, and mountains. Some of the sand dunes are 180 meters tall. The Sahara has very strong winds that make big sandstorms. The sandstorms can take plants and animals into the air!
The Atacama Desert is in Peru and Chile. It’s not very hot, and it’s one of the oldest and driest deserts on Earth. It has less than 1 millimeter of rain every year! Scientists think that at one time, it didn’t rain here for 400 years.
There aren’t many deserts in Europe. There’s one small desert in Spain. It’s called the Tabernas Desert.
The Gobi Desert is in Mongolia and China. It’s 1,300,000 square kilometers and it’s in the mountains. Most of the land is rock. It’s one of the coldest deserts on Earth. In winter, the temperature can be minus 40 degrees centigrade!
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