Question

The world's driest desert is:
1. Thar
2. Sahara
3. Gobi
4. Atacama

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 4 : Atacama

The correct answer is Atacama.

• ATACAMA
  • It is a desert plateau in South America (Chile) and is the driest non-polar desert in the world.
  • It is situated between the Andes Mountain range and the Chilean Coast Mountain range, covering a distance of 1600 km on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes mountains.
  • The desert is mainly composed of stony terrain, salt lakes, sand, and lava flowing towards the Andes.
  • Following are the reasons for the extreme dryness of the desert
    • Temperature inversion due to Humboldt ocean current flowing towards the north.
    • Presence of strong Pacific anticyclone.

 

• The Atacama desert is the only true desert to receive less precipitation than the polar deserts.
• The Atacama desert is the largest fog desert in the world.
• The soil of the region 100km south of Antofagasta, is compared to the soil present on the Mars planet. 
• THAR
  • It is also known as the Great Indian Desert and is situated northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent.
  • The majority portion of the desert (85%) is found in India and the remaining part of the desert is found in Pakistan.
  • In India, the desert spreads across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, and Haryana.
• ​SAHARA
  • ​It is the largest hot desert found in the African continent and third overall as it is smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic.
  • It stretches across - Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara.
• GOBI
  • The cold winter desert is located in China and Mongolia.
  • It is a rain-shadow desert, the 2nd largest in Asia, and the 6th overall.