🏜...FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT THE DESERTS... 🏜

What is a desert? 

We have all heard about deserts, but what exactly is a desert? It is any area of land that gets less than 25 cms of rainfall a year. Water, which is essential for life, is very scarce in a desert, so deserts are very, very dry places. Clouds are rare, and so the air and the land receive the full force of the sun, making deserts scorchingly hot during the day. 

At night, the temperature drops rapidly, and since there are no clouds to trap the heat and keep the land warm, the desert becomes very cold. 

Here are some interesting facts about deserts: 

* Europe is the only continent without a desert. There is no region in Europe that receives less than 25 cms of rain a year. 

* The Sahara has not always been a desert. Over millions of years, it was covered in ice. Around 8,000 years ago, it has been covered in sea, forests and grasslands. 

* The biggest cactus of all is found in Arizona, and is the saguaro. It can grow up to height of 15 metres, and is over 0.5 metres thick. Its skin is smooth and waxy, the trunk and stems have stout, five cms spines clustered on their ribs. When water is absorbed, the outer pulp of the saguaro can expand like an accordion, increasing its weight by upto a ton. 

* Deadly White Domino beetles are ground beetles found in some deserts. They are called so because of the white spots on their black backs. This pattern warns attackers that the ground beetle will spray a chemical that burns on any animal that attacks it. 

When I was reading Manorama's "Tell Me Why"

I came across these fascinating facts about the deserts. 

Hope to share more interesting facts in the upcoming blogs. 

                           Thank you...