5 Desert Types to Clear your Misconceptions about Deserts
Any ideas of a desert depicted in our minds depend significantly on the deserts we have seen in pictures, films, and documentaries. We are usually taught that a desert is a warm place with sand as far as the eye can see in all directions. It has no flora save for a cactus or two, an abundance of blistering sunlight, and a complete lack of water, which causes a mirage, which is frequently vital for the plot. What is the truth about deserts, regardless of popular belief? To begin, there are various desert types, each with its own set of characteristics that shape the nature of the desert.
Some deserts are warm all day and colder at night, while some are warm throughout. Some deserts experience very little rainfall while some experience it in a decent amount. In this blog, we will clear all your misconceptions about deserts by informing you about different desert types and factors affecting their nature.
Different Desert Types
1. Subtropical Deserts
Most likely, a subtropical desert would come to mind if you were to visualize a desert. The world’s subtropical regions are home to the hottest deserts, which are often referred to as trade wind deserts. Subtropical desert plants and animals can tolerate the high temperatures and scarcity of rainfall.
In the subtropical desert, tiny plants and shrubs typically have leaves that are specialized to hold moisture. Animals are typically active during the colder hours of the night in subtropical deserts. Moreover, the soil is sandy or rough and rocky. One of the best examples of a subtropical desert is the Sahara Desert in Africa. Convection cells, a form of global weather pattern that affects some of the major climatic systems on Earth, cause such desert types.
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2. Coastal Deserts
You are most likely to experience mirage in coastal deserts, as there is little sign of the water in the picture. However, quite a few coastal deserts can be found directly along the shorelines of the world’s largest oceans. Deserts along the shore can range in temperature from cool to warm. Such desert types experience chilly winters and pleasant, extended summers. West coasts of continents between 20° and 30° latitude are home to coastal deserts. While we frequently associate coastal areas with humid environments, other sites, such as the Atacama region of Chile, are near strong currents that force cold water to the ocean’s surface.
The Atacama is between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean and is around 600 to 700 miles long. Some weather stations in the area have never recorded a single drop of rain since the climate is so dry. These thermal inversions frequently produce dense cloud cover and fog but little or no rain. The Atacama Desert, which can go over 20 years without receiving a single millimeter of rain is truly the driest desert on Earth. In a coastal environment like the Atacama, a cool ocean current can therefore produce a scorchingly hot and unusually dry desert, as absurd as it may sound.
3. Interior Deserts
Due to the absence of moisture-laden breezes, interior deserts can be found in the center of continents. Inland deserts are another name for interior deserts. There is little to no moisture in the air by the time it reaches these desert regions, since they are so distant from significant sources of water, like the ocean.
Interior deserts can have extremely high sand dunes and can be quite dry. While some of these sand dunes can reach heights of hundreds of feet, they are constantly shifting and changing because of the wind. There are many interior deserts, notably the Taklamakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwest China. The distance between the desert and the closest significant body of water might be thousands of miles.