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A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation.
Deserts and xeric (Ancient Greek ξηρός xērós 'dry') shrublands form the largest terrestrial biome, covering 19% of Earth's land surface area. [2] Ecoregions in this habitat type vary greatly in the amount of annual rainfall they receive, usually less than 250 millimetres (10 in) annually except in the margins.
Tropical deserts are located in regions between 15 and 30 degrees latitude. The environment is very extreme, and they have the highest average monthly temperature on Earth . Rainfall is sporadic; precipitation may not be observed at all in a few years.
Semiarid deserts experience similar conditions to hot deserts, however, the maximum and minimum temperatures tend to be less extreme, and generally range from 10 to 38 °C. Coastal deserts are cooler than hot and semiarid deserts, with average summer temperatures ranging between 13 and 24 °C.
Mammals of the desert include the southern hairy-nosed wombat, which shelters from the hot sun by burrowing into the sands, as well as typical desert animals such as red kangaroos and dingoes. An elusive subspecies of the Australian masked owl unique to the Nullarbor is known to roost in the many caves on the plain.
The Atacama Desert (Spanish: Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau located on the Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile.Stretching over a 1,600-kilometre-long (1,000-mile) strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of 105,000 km 2 (41,000 sq mi), [2] which increases to 128,000 km 2 (49,000 sq mi) if the barren lower slopes of the Andes are included.
The Patagonian Desert is the largest desert south of the 40° parallel and is a large cold winter desert, where the temperature rarely exceeds 12 °C and averages just 3 °C. The region experiences about seven months of winter and five months of summer. Frost is not uncommon in the desert but, due to the very dry condition year round, snow is rare.
The Algodones Dunes. The Colorado Desert is a subregion of the larger Sonoran Desert, [1] covering about 7 million acres (2.8 million ha; 28,000 km 2). [2] The desert occupies Imperial County, parts of San Diego and Riverside counties, and a small part of San Bernardino County in California, United States, [3] as well as the northern part of Mexicali Municipality in Baja California, Mexico.