1. The Desert: An Example of Weathering and Erosion

2. What is a desert? A landscape or region Very low precipitation (less than 10 inches of water per year) Sometimes more water evaporates than is received in rain

3. Is there more than one kind of desert? There are hot deserts and cold deserts Cold desert Hot desert

4. How are cold deserts made? The main form of precipitation in a cold desert is snow or fog The snow never melts and thick ice forms No plants can grow and few, if any, animals live here

5. How are hot deserts made? The wind acts in three ways: It weathers the rock and breaks it into sediments Sediments are transported by the wind Sediments are deposited somewhere else

6. How are hot deserts made? Over millions of years, wind blows sediments into heaps that grow into dunes

7. How are deserts made? Sometimes the sediments hit very hard rocks and only part of the rock is eroded away, creating rock formations

8. Some desert facts: Deserts cover about 20% to 30% of Earth’s surface About 1 billion people live on desert land

9. More facts: The Sahara Desert is the largest hot desert in the world Antarctica has the largest cold desert in the world mesas

10. Plants (Flora) You probably thought of cactus. Like most desert plants, they … Need little water Are salt-tolerant Often have few plants, but much variety © Eli SnyderEli Snyder Provided by Free Nature PictureFree Nature Picture

11. Animals (Fauna) You probably thought of camels, but the desert has many small animals. That includes kangaroo rats, jackrabbits, birds and lizards They are out at night because of the daytime heat

12. What about people? People must adapt to the environment. Hot deserts are REALLY hot Cold deserts are REALLY cold There is difficulty getting water and food Often life is nomadic (roaming), yet 1 billion people live in desert regions

13. Desert Vocabulary Mesas and buttes are hard rock landforms that have been eroded away by water mesa butte

14. Desert Vocabulary Salt pan or playa is a lake of salt water that dries out in the dry season and forms a layer of salt crystal on the ground Salt pan or playa

15. Desert Vocabulary A wadi is a dry river bed. Rain doesn’t sink into the ground and the result is flash floods. wadi Photo by Gila Brand. flash flood Credit: Shootthedevgru at en.wikipediaShootthedevgruen.wikipedia

16. Desert Vocabulary A haboob is a thick dust storm or sandstorm that occurs in Africa, Arabia or India Photo Credit: Stan Celestian, Glendale Community College.

17. Deserts of the World Librarythinkquest.com