20160202 【The World's Great Deserts】

The World's Great Deserts
Deserts cover 20 percent of Earths land surface,yet remain mystery!

People often boast about vacations to beautiful beaches or peaceful,picturesque mountains.

But your have probably never heard someone speak with enthusiasm about a recent trip to the desert.

Deserts, however, offer some of the globe's most dramatic landscape and natural beauty.

Some flawed perceptions

Many think that deserts are places that receive very little rainfall,produce few plants and are known for their high heat and abundant amount of sand.

Yet the world's two largest deserts might surprise you!

The biggest

The Antarctic Desert extends 13829430 square kilometres over the South Pole and is the coldest, driest and windiest place on Earth.

Most of Antarctic is covered in ice, yet the region is considered a desert because of the small amount of precipitation that it receives.

Rainfall averages from 50 to 200 millimetres annually.

The second largest, the Arcitic Desert can be found at the top of the globe in the northernmost region of the world.

Its area includes land in Canada, the United States , Finland,Norway and Russia.

Both land areas are known as "polar deserts " or " cold deserts."