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13: Deserts

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    Approximately 30 percent of Earth’s terrestrial surface is desert. Deserts are defined as locations of low precipitation. While temperature extremes are often associated with deserts, they do not define them. The lack of moisture, including the lack of humidity and cloud cover, allow temperature extremes to occur. The sun’s energy is more absorbed by the Earth’s surface without cloud cover, and nighttime cooling is more drastic without cloud cover and humidity to absorb the emitted heat, so temperature extremes are common in deserts.

    • 13.1: Prelude to Deserts
      The location of climates on Earth’s surface is not random. Jungles, tundras, and deserts have scientific explanations for their locations. Approximately 30 percent of Earth’s terrestrial surface is desert. Deserts are defined as locations of low precipitation. While temperature extremes are often associated with deserts, they do not define them.
    • 13.2: The Origin of Deserts
      The engine that drives circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is solar energy which is determined by the average position of the sun over the earth’s surface. Direct light provides uneven heating depending on latitude and angle of incidence, with high solar energy in the tropics, and little or no energy at the poles. Atmospheric circulation and geographic location are the primary causal agents of deserts.
    • 13.3: Desert Weathering and Erosion
      Weathering takes place in desert climates by the same means as other climates, only at a slower rate. While the higher temperatures of some deserts would spur faster weathering, water is the main agent of weathering, so the lack of it slows weathering.
    • 13.4: Desert Landforms
      A variety of unique landforms form in deserts. Oftentimes they form as a result of the wind, lack of water, or periodic flash flooding. The last of these three things often causes big changes in the landscape due to the rapidly flowing water.
    • 13.5: The Great Basin and the Basin and Range
      The Great Basin is the largest area of interior drainage in North America, meaning there is no outlet to the ocean and all precipitation remains in the basin or is evaporated. It covers western Utah, most of Nevada, and extends into eastern California, southern Oregon, and southern Idaho. The desert of the Basin and Range extends in the western US from about 35° to near 40° and has a rain shadow effect created by westerly winds from the Pacific rising and cooling over the Sierras, depleted of mo

    Thumbnail: Sand dunes in the Rub' al Khali ("Empty quarter") in the United Arab Emirates. (CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported; Nepenthes via Wikipedia)

    This page titled 13: Deserts is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Chris Johnson, Matthew D. Affolter, Paul Inkenbrandt, & Cam Mosher (OpenGeology) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.