There are so many beautiful areas, environments and landscapes around the world! One of the most unique and compelling is the desert! How exactly does one define a desert environment? Well, a desert is considered a barren area of land in which the precipitation received totals less than 10 inches per year. Essentially, a desert is a biome where it rarely rains. Hostile and harsh, deserts have been depicted in media as being hellish landscapes. Other depictions of deserts have been tamer; picturing them as lush and exotic oases filled with wonder. Are you interested in learning more about desert environments? Look no further! Read below for some great desert wall art facts.
5 Desert Facts
- Did you know that Antarctica is technically a desert? Antarctica is the largest ice desert in the world. In fact, it’s so big that it measures to be roughly the size of Russia at over 5 million square miles. The Antarctic desert is also noticeable for being the coldest one in the world, with the average temperature during winter being -49 degrees Celsius, with the lowest ever recorded being -94 degrees Celsius.
- Deserts are often depicted as being harsh and hellish landscapes to live in. That said, people actually do live in the desert for their entire lives! In fact, over 1 billion people live in a desert environments. Life may be hard due to scarce resources and large landscapes to traverse, but these people are able to manage!
- Although deserts are very arid environments, they aren’t completely devoid of water. Did you know that all desert plants store water? Leaves store up decent amounts of water that plants live off during times of extremely severe drought. Most desert plants have padded leaves that specifically evolved to lock in water when it rains.
- The Arabian desert is the world’s 4th largest desert and the biggest desert in Asia. Did you know that the Arabian desert is classified as a “Xeric shrubland”. Weird term, right? This term essentially means that it’s a desert that takes up 10% of the Earth’s surface area.
- Maintaining hydration levels is a very important part of surviving in a desert ecosystem. Did you know that even animals understand the importance of water conservation. Thanks to evolution, camels have developed humps to conserve water to sustain themselves on long treks through the desert. Other animals in the desert survive by means of hibernation; if they don’t have to actively engage with their environments on a day to day basis, they can survive longer! Read below for more desert wall art facts.
5 More Desert Wall Art Facts
- As previously stated, desert environments have been home to people for a long time. That said, it hasn’t always been easy to transport oneself in the desert by means of automobile, camel, or horse. To eat, people in the desert invented desert farming! Did you know that farming within the desert can be traced back to as far as 5,000 BC? That’s right, desert farming started in the Negev Desert, a region in Southern Israel. Desert farming is still a success in other countries like Saudi Arabia, Palestine and Australia.
- Did you know that there are actually four main types of deserts? The types of hot deserts, cold deserts, semi-arid deserts, and coastal deserts. Hot deserts feature warm temperatures year round. Cold deserts are cold year around. Semi-arid deserts are those with temperatures that vary, and coastal deserts are ones that are near large bodies of water.
- An interesting thing about coastal deserts, those that are located close to large bodies of water, is that they are actually more humid than other deserts. One would assume that coastal deserts get a lot more rainfall than others, but this is not quite true! In reality, the moisture they receive mostly comes from heavy fog that blows in from the coast.
- As the world gets more and more clean energy conscious, deserts are becoming more attractive sources for energy. Solar powers is one of the most abundant and clean energy sources that exists! Since deserts are composed of huge, flat landscapes that are rich in both silicon and sunlight, they make for natural fits for solar energy sources.
- Earth isn’t the only planet with deserts. Did you know that Mars is the only other planet in our solar system that has deserts. The deserts of Mars consist of dunes that are situated over large polar ice caps. Did you enjoy these desert wall art facts?
Conclusion
Insatiable for more interesting desert wall art facts? Deserts are large landscapes filled with sand, but are you aware the the amount of sand is so copious that about 30% of Earth is composed of sand? We hope you learned a lot about deserts from these facts. Interested in visiting one? Want to go motorbiking atop some desert dunes now? Thanks for reading these desert wall art facts!