Moon's desert...

Cold Deserts of the World

The main form of precipitation in a cold desert is snow or fog. 


 

Atacama (Coasts of Peru and Chile) With a size of 140,000 km2, is a desert covered by sand dunes and pebbles. Is one of the driest areas on earth. We cand find bunchgrass, cardon cactus, tamaruga, trees lizards, llama, Peruvian fox. Atacama landscape is a nesting area where only a few thousand people (mostly farmers) live in the inland desert areas. Large deposits of sodium nitrate are found in the desert. Sodium nitrate is used to make gunpowder.

Gobi (Northern China and Southern Mongolia) With a size  of 1,200,000 km² , is a desert covered by sandy soil and areas of small stones called "gobi". There are animals like camel's thorn, grasses, bactrian bamel, gazelle, gerbil, jerboa, lizards, onager and wolfs. Likee historical reference, the Gobi was crossed by Genghis Khan in the early 13th century. Many nomads now settling on government-run farms.

Great Basin (Western United States: Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah) With a surface of 411,000 km² ,the desert is covered by sand, gravel, and clay. It has many moutains ranges, basins, and large expanses of salt flats. We can find animals like the greasewood, sagebrush, shadscale, bighorn sheep, jackrabbit, pocket mouse, poor-will, pronghorn antelope, sage thrasher and  side-blotched lizard. The Great Salt Lake is located here.

 

Iranian (Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) 390,000 km² Covered by coarse gray soil, stony pavement, and salt flats. We find grasses, pistachio trees, shrubs, monitor lizard, onager, oryx and scorpion. The world's largest salt flat located here.

Namib (Coasts of Southwestern Africa) 135,000 km² Covered by sand dunes along the coast and gravel farther inland. We find aloe, bunchgrass, lichens, welwitschia, darkling beetle, fringe-toed lizard, golden mole, jackal, sidewinder, viper and web-footed gecko. Coast of the Namib Desert is world's greatest source of gemstones.

Takla Makan (Western China) 1,600,000km² Covered by sand dunes and rocky soil.  We find grasses, shrubs, bactrian camel, jerboa, long-eared hedgeho and gazelles. The word "Takla Makan" means "place from which there is no return." It was crossed by Marco Polo in the 13th Century.

Turkestan (Parts of the Middle East and Southwestern Russia) 559,000 km² Covered mostly by extensive stretches of sand dunes. We find alhagi shrub, saxaul tree, sedges, thick ground cover, desert tortoise, gazelle, gerbil and saiga antelopes.It was crossed by caravans following silk route from China in Europe in ancient times. The great city of Samarkand,once a cultural and religious center of central Asia, was located here.