Deserts are areas that receive very little annual precipitation, although it is generally considered that deserts are very hot and dry landscapes, there are many ore factors to what makes a desert. Although some deserts are very hot, with daytime temperatures as high as 54°C, other deserts have cold winters or are cold year-round. Most deserts, far from being empty and lifeless, are home to a variety of plants, animals, and other organisms, these plants, animals and organisms are specially adapted to survive and thrive extremely dry conditions. People have also adapted to life in the desert for thousands of years (however some deserts are inhabitable due to extreme weather conditions).
One thing all deserts have in common is that they are arid and/or dry with very little precipitation. Although the …show more content…
As the air rises, it cools and drops its moisture as heavy tropical rains. The resulting cooler, drier air mass moves away from the Equator. As it approaches the tropics, the air descends and warms up again. The descending air hinders the formation of clouds, so very little rain falls on the land below causing the land below to become dry.
Cold ocean currents contribute to the formation of coastal deserts. Air blowing toward shore is chilled by contact with cold water which produces a layer of fog. This heavy fog drifts onto land. Although the humidity is high, the atmospheric changes that normally cause rainfall are not present. A coastal desert may be almost totally rainless, yet damp and humid with fog, this is a very interesting and strange process.
The Atacama Desert, on the Pacific shores of Chile, is a great example of a coastal desert. Some areas of the Atacama are often covered by fog but the region can go decades without rainfall. In fact, the Atacama Desert is the driest place on Earth. Some weather stations in the Atacama have never recorded a drop of