When you think of the largest desert in the world, what comes to mind? Sand, heat, and the Sahara, perhaps? But what if we told you that the biggest desert is actually white and cold? Sounds impossible, right? Let’s dive in and explore this fascinating topic.
What is a desert and which one is the biggest in the world?
To understand how deserts work, you should know that a desert is defined by the amount of rainfall it receives. A region that gets very little rainfall is classified as a desert. But there are many types of deserts, including ice deserts. What they all have in common is an arid and windy landscape that makes it difficult for plants and animals to thrive. When we think of deserts, we often imagine an arid environment with wavy sand dunes. However, there are four main types of deserts.
There are the warm and dry deserts, like the Sahara, with high temperatures throughout the year. Then there are the semi-arid deserts, which have long and dry summers with little rain in winter. Coastal deserts are wet but with little rainfall, and finally, there are the polar deserts, which are cold and dry. So, what is the largest desert in the world? The answer might surprise you – it’s Antarctica, with an approximate area of 14.2 million square kilometers and temperatures as low as -89 °C.
A white and cold desert, that’s Antarctica
This polar desert, located in Antarctica, has extremely low rainfall and is characterized by its icy landscape, which contains nearly 70% of the Earth’s fresh water in the form of ice. Approximately 98% of the Antarctic continent is covered by a permanent layer of ice, which covers an incredible surface area of 14 million km² – roughly the same size as the United States and Mexico combined. At its deepest point, Antarctica’s ice has a thickness of 4.5 km. If it were to melt, the global sea level would increase by about 60 m. That’s a lot of ice, and it’s taken around 45 million years to reach its current thickness.
For such a large space covered with ice, it’s astonishing to know that the world’s largest desert receives a mere 2 centimeters of rainfall per year. Unfortunately, this title may not last long due to climate change and the unprecedented levels of melting ice in the Earth’s poles. This could lead to a reduction in polar deserts like Antarctica, causing a rise in sea levels and irreversible damage to these fragile ecosystems.
What is bigger, the Sahara or the Antarctic desert?
The Antarctic desert is the largest desert in the world, almost double the size of the Sahara desert. As mentioned earlier, it’s considered a desert due to its extremely low annual precipitation, despite its icy conditions, making it the driest and most extensive desert on Earth. The Sahara desert, on the other hand, covers an area of approximately 9.2 million square kilometers, making it the third-largest desert in the world after the Arctic desert.
Since deserts are divided into polar and non-polar categories, in the polar category, the Antarctic desert is the largest, while the Sahara is the largest warm desert. So, the next time you’re asked, you’ll know the correct answer. The Antarctic desert’s unique characteristics make it a fascinating topic, and its massive size is a reminder of the incredible diversity of our planet’s landscapes.
