The Most Dangerous Deserts

Namib desert. Namibia. The oldest desert in the world

African Namib desert, stretching along the coast of Namibia, almost not seen rain for at least 55 million years. For the year here falls not more than 10 mm of rain (for comparison, in Moscow – 600 mm), but because of its huge space 80 thousand square kilometers of almost barren and uninhabited. The very name from the language of the local Nama people translated as “a place where there is nothing. ” But here you can find the world’s highest sand dunes, which can reach a height of 300 meters. Moreover, he immediately found a fairly large deposits of uranium, tungsten and diamonds.

Desert of Uyuni. Bolivia. Most salt desert in the world

Nestled on an area of 10 thousand square kilometers of desert Uyuni salt is considered the most in the world. Its stock of salt is estimated at 10 billion tons. Once upon a time there was a large salt lake, but over time it has dried up, leaving the whole of the salt dissolved in the water on the Earth’s surface. In the same desert and buried the world’s largest reserves of lithium. Fascinating local landscapes attract the salt marshes is quite a lot of tourists and local residents have adapted to build houses out of salt plates, which offer travelers to spend the night.

Aralkum. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The youngest desert in the world

The Aral Sea, most recently the fourth largest salt lake in the world, from the 60-ies of the last century, has lost 90% of its area. This stems from the Soviet Union irrigation projects, carried off all the water from the rivers feeding the sea to irrigate vast cotton crops. Despite the fact that so far the proposed project on saving the sea, scientists believe that it is impossible to do so. Even if withdrawals from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya is completely stopped, the restoration of the former volume of water required at least 200 years. Aralkum part-time and is the most poisonous desert world. Pesticides and fertilizers, which once increased cotton yields and fight pests, together with the river water fell into the lake, and now in the dried form, together with the dust carried far beyond the desert. Toxic substances have been found here, even in the blood of penguins in the Antarctic.

Kakros desert. Canada. The smallest desert in the world

The smallest desert in the world is only 2.6 square kilometers, and, strictly speaking, this is not a desert. Despite the fact that the climate is much drier than the surrounding terrain, rain here does occur. In the late 90′s of the last century, the local authorities have made ​​an attempt to make out of the wilderness reserve, but faced strong resistance from local residents, who have long adapted the place as picnic areas, off-road riding, and raids on the boards from the dunes.

Sugar. North Africa. The largest desert in the world

For its size the Sahara, which occupies most of North Africa, comparable to the European continent or U.S. territory. An area of 9,000,000 square kilometers and covers 11 African countries. Here in 1922 was recorded the highest temperature – 57.8 degrees Celsius. Each year, the Sahara is observed more than 160 mirages. For travelers, even composed a special card through which you can know exactly where are most likely to be seen mirages well, palm trees, oases and mountain ranges.

Atacama Desert. Chile. The driest desert in the world

Prior to the Atacama desert, sandwiched between the Andes and the Cordillera, is not getting hardly any rain cloud. Precipitation is not seen for several years, and some weather stations have never fixed and rain for all of its existence. Drought is such that the local mountain peaks that reach a height of no less than 6,500 meters, have no ice caps.