QuickCheck: Is the Sahara the world's largest desert?
I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
Anakin Skywalker's awkward attempt at wooing Padmé aside, he does have a point. He knew better than most about the downsides of sand, having been born on the desert planet Tatooine. It was hot and covered in endless sand dunes, much like the deserts on our own planet, Earth.
One of the most famous deserts on earth is the Sahara Desert. Located in North Africa, this vast plain of sand is often thought of as the largest desert on in the world.
However, is this common conception true?
VERDICT:
FALSE
Not only is the Sahara not the largest desert in the world, it isn't even the second largest.
A desert is defined as an area with very little precipitation. In other words, it has everything to do with how much rain a location gets and not its temperature.
So, by definition, the title of the largest desert in the world goes to the polar desert known as Antarctica. Apparently, snow doesn't count.
The land area of the continent at the South Pole measures about 14.2 million sq km, dwarfing the Sahara's 9.4 million sq km. This means that the Arctic in the North Pole, with a surface area of 13.9 million sq km, is the second largest desert, leaving the Sahara with the bronze. The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert; however, it too has experienced the odd snowfall.
ALSO READ: Does the Sahara Desert ever experience snow?
So, either you're getting thrown into a Sarlacc pit on Tatooine or crawling into a Tauntaun carcass on Hoth, just remember that deserts, hot or cold, are just places that don't get much rain.
REFERENCES
https://education. nationalgeographic.org/ resource/deserts/
https://science.howstuffworks. com/environmental/earth/ geology/largest-desert-in- world.htm
https://geographical.co.uk/ science-environment/the- worlds-largest-deserts
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
3 days ago
- The Sun
Greenland ice melted much faster than average in May heatwave
COPENHAGEN: Greenland's ice sheet melted 17 times faster than the past average during a May heatwave that also hit Iceland, the scientific network World Weather Attribution (WWA) said in a report Wednesday. The Arctic region is on the frontline of global warming, heating up four times faster than the rest of the planet since 1979, according to a 2022 study in scientific journal Nature. 'The melting rate of the Greenland ice sheet by, from a preliminary analysis, a factor of 17... means the Greenland ice sheet contribution to sea level rise is higher than it would have otherwise been without this heat wave,' one of the authors of the report, Friederike Otto, associate professor in climate science at the Imperial College London, told reporters. 'Without climate change this would have been impossible,' she said. In Iceland, the temperature exceeded 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) on May 15, unprecedented for that time of year on the subarctic island. 'Temperatures over Iceland as observed this May are record-breaking, more than 13 degrees Celsius hotter than the 1991-2020 average May daily maximum temperatures,' the WWA said. In May, 94 percent of Iceland's weather stations registered record temperatures, according to the country's meteorological institute. In eastern Greenland, the hottest day during the heatwave was about 3.9 degrees Celsius warmer compared to the preindustrial climate, the WWA said. 'While a heatwave that is around 20 degrees Celsius might not sound like an extreme event from the experience of most people around the world, it is a really big deal for this part of the world,' Otto said. 'It affects the whole world massively,' she said. According to the WWA, the record highs observed in Iceland and Greenland this May could reoccur every 100 years. For Greenland's indigenous communities, the warmer temperatures and melting ice affect their ability to hunt on the ice, posing a threat to their livelihood and traditional way of life. The changes also affect infrastructure in the two countries. 'In Greenland and Iceland, infrastructure is built for cold weather, meaning during a heatwave ice melt can lead to flooding and damage roads and infrastructure,' the WWA said.
The Sun
3 days ago
- The Sun
Greenland ice melted much faster than average in May heatwave: scientists
COPENHAGEN: Greenland's ice sheet melted 17 times faster than the past average during a May heatwave that also hit Iceland, the scientific network World Weather Attribution (WWA) said in a report Wednesday. The Arctic region is on the frontline of global warming, heating up four times faster than the rest of the planet since 1979, according to a 2022 study in scientific journal Nature. 'The melting rate of the Greenland ice sheet by, from a preliminary analysis, a factor of 17... means the Greenland ice sheet contribution to sea level rise is higher than it would have otherwise been without this heat wave,' one of the authors of the report, Friederike Otto, associate professor in climate science at the Imperial College London, told reporters. 'Without climate change this would have been impossible,' she said. In Iceland, the temperature exceeded 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) on May 15, unprecedented for that time of year on the subarctic island. 'Temperatures over Iceland as observed this May are record-breaking, more than 13 degrees Celsius hotter than the 1991-2020 average May daily maximum temperatures,' the WWA said. In May, 94 percent of Iceland's weather stations registered record temperatures, according to the country's meteorological institute. In eastern Greenland, the hottest day during the heatwave was about 3.9 degrees Celsius warmer compared to the preindustrial climate, the WWA said. 'While a heatwave that is around 20 degrees Celsius might not sound like an extreme event from the experience of most people around the world, it is a really big deal for this part of the world,' Otto said. 'It affects the whole world massively,' she said. According to the WWA, the record highs observed in Iceland and Greenland this May could reoccur every 100 years. For Greenland's indigenous communities, the warmer temperatures and melting ice affect their ability to hunt on the ice, posing a threat to their livelihood and traditional way of life. The changes also affect infrastructure in the two countries. 'In Greenland and Iceland, infrastructure is built for cold weather, meaning during a heatwave ice melt can lead to flooding and damage roads and infrastructure,' the WWA said.
The Star
3 days ago
- The Star
QuickCheck: Is the Sahara the world's largest desert?
I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Anakin Skywalker's awkward attempt at wooing Padmé aside, he does have a point. He knew better than most about the downsides of sand, having been born on the desert planet Tatooine. It was hot and covered in endless sand dunes, much like the deserts on our own planet, Earth. One of the most famous deserts on earth is the Sahara Desert. Located in North Africa, this vast plain of sand is often thought of as the largest desert on in the world. However, is this common conception true? VERDICT: FALSE Not only is the Sahara not the largest desert in the world, it isn't even the second largest. A desert is defined as an area with very little precipitation. In other words, it has everything to do with how much rain a location gets and not its temperature. So, by definition, the title of the largest desert in the world goes to the polar desert known as Antarctica. Apparently, snow doesn't count. The land area of the continent at the South Pole measures about 14.2 million sq km, dwarfing the Sahara's 9.4 million sq km. This means that the Arctic in the North Pole, with a surface area of 13.9 million sq km, is the second largest desert, leaving the Sahara with the bronze. The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert; however, it too has experienced the odd snowfall. ALSO READ: Does the Sahara Desert ever experience snow? So, either you're getting thrown into a Sarlacc pit on Tatooine or crawling into a Tauntaun carcass on Hoth, just remember that deserts, hot or cold, are just places that don't get much rain. REFERENCES resource/deserts/ com/environmental/earth/ geology/largest-desert-in- science-environment/the- worlds-largest-deserts
