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What and where are deserts?
Deserts are generally defined as places with very little rainfall (usually below 250 mm per year). However, this means that there are two main types of desert, hot deserts and cold deserts. Together these two types of desert cover 20% of the land on Earth.
For most children, the word 'desert' means a hot, sandy place but it is important to realise that areas close to the North and South Poles are just as much deserts as the Sahara or the Kalahari.
Cold deserts are found beyond 66º north or south of the Equator, close to the North and South poles. Antarctica is one huge ice-cap which, in places is 2000 metres thick. It stores nine-tenths of all the world's fresh water.
If this ice ever melted, world sea-levels would rise and everywhere below 65 metres above sea-level would be flooded.
For resources on cold deserts see previous page.
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