Kilometers
of sand, rocks, sandbanks, and sceneries evoking lunar landscapes are
all about a journey in a desert and are certainly, a unique adventure.
All the deserts are not the same. Here are the most unusual deserts of
the world.
01. A Desert With Lagoons - Lencois Maranhenses, Brasil
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Amazingly stretched in Brazil, it
is almost impossible to believe that the desert where water has no word
is full of lagoons. Situated in the State of Maranhao on the north
shore, this desert is in the Lencois Maranhenses National Park where
white dunes and blue lagoons have a contrasting match. 08 more after the break...
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The lagoons are formed due to
rain drops that accumulate on the depression between dunes forming small
ponds of clear water. You can see them only after winters but before
summers where species of fish, turtles, and clams live.
02. The Colorful Desert - Painted Desert, USA
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The Painted Desert (Arizona) is
an expanse of badland hills, flat-topped mesas and buttes. It is an arid
land, sparsely vegetated and heavily eroded. The name Painted Desert
refers to the rainbow of colorful sedimentary layers exposed in the
austere landscape.
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The landforms of the Painted
Desert have been described as a multicolored layer cake. The variety of
hues in the sandstone and mudstone layers of the Chinle Formation is the
result of the varying mineral content in the sediments and the rate at
which the sediments were laid down.
03. Officially the World's Smallest Desert - Carcross Desert, Canada
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The Carcross Desert (located
outside Carcross village, Yukon) is affectionately known as the world's
smallest desert. The dry climate and wind conditions have created sand
dunes and forced special vegetation to adapt to the surroundings. The
Carcoss Desert measures approximately 1 square mile (2.6 km2), or 640
acres.
04. The World's Largest Gypsum Desert - White Sands, USA
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Rising from the heart of the
Tularosa Basin is one of the world's great natural wonders - the
glistening white sands of New Mexico. Here, dunes have engulfed 275 sq
mi (712 sq km) of desert creating the world's largest gypsum desert.
White Sands has amazing sand dunes. Some of these are over 40 feet (12
m) tall. Unlike other desert sands, it is cool to the touch, due to the
high rate of evaporation of surface moisture and the fact that the sands
reflect, rather than absorb, the sun's rays.
05. The Black Desert - Egypt
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The Black Desert is a region of
volcano-shaped mountains with large quantities of small black stones.
The stones lie out across the orange-brown ground, so that it is not
quite as black as many people may hope for. Climbing one of the many
soft peeks, the view from the top is really nice, with similar peeks
continuing on into the haze. The Black Desert is uninhabited, and there
are no amenities here.
06. The World's Largest Salt Desert - Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
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This
desert, located in Bolivia would change your conception of the idea of
deserts completely. It happens to be the largest salt desert in the
world but the beauty of the place is exceptional. The desert is
completely flat and the so large and crystal in its salty nature that
the whole sky seems to be reflected in it creating the ground in
different shades of blue. Another beautiful aspect of the desert is the
numerous lakes that you will find here, these lakes are in multiple
colors because of the minerals that make it up. The effect of these
soothing colors is remarkable.
Extracted salt sits in piles
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Salar de Uyuni is the world's
largest salt flat at 10,582 sq km (4,086 sq mi). The Salar contains
large amounts of sodium, potassium, lithium and magnesium, as well as
borax. It is estimated to contain 10 billion tonnes of salt, of which
less than 25,000 tonnes is extracted annually.
07. Driest Desert in the World - Atacama, Chile
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According to NASA reports, the
Atacama desert in Chile is the driest desert in the world. National
Geographic has also verified that the Atacama is the driest desert. The
Atacama Desert in Chile is over 50 time’s drier that Death Valley in
California. The desert covers over 40.600 sq mi (105.000 sq km) and is
mostly comprised of salt basins, lava flows, and sand. The average rain
fall in the region is just one millimeter per year. Some weather
stations in the desert have never reported any rainfall. The weather is
so arid that even the mountain peaks that reach over 6,500 m (21 000 ft)
have no glaciers.
08. A Desert Covered With Snowfall - Taklamakan, China
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Taklamakan is one of the largest
sandy deserts in the world, ranking 15th in size in a ranking of the
world's largest non-polar deserts. It covers an area of 270,000 sq km
(100,000 sq mi) of the Tarim Basin, 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long and
400 kilometres (250 mi) wide. It is crossed at its northern and at its
southern edges by two branches of the silk road as travelers sought to
avoid the arid wasteland.
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In 2008, China's biggest desert
experienced its biggest snowfall and lowest temperature after 11
consecutive days of snow. Snow is rare in the desert that covered
337,600 sq km (130 sq mi), never before had the whole desert been
covered.
09. The Red Sand Desert - Simpson Desert, Australia
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Located in Australia and regarded
as one of its four large deserts, the Simpson Desert is simply amazing
because of the red sand dunes. Not only is this attractive, but another
mesmerizing aspect is that it holds the longest parallel dunes on the
planet, which are north-south static lines affixed due to vegetation.
With varying heights from 3 m to 30 m (10-100 ft), the most famous dune
is the Big Red at 40 m (130 ft).
Australian Simpson Desert Plants
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Although the
Simpson Desert is a harsh environment, native, spiny grasses known as
spinefex bind the loose sand and provide a habitat for over 180 bird
species and for lizards and marsupials.
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