English desert and its Romance cognates (including Italian and Portuguese deserto, French désert and Spanish See more

Deserts occupy about one third of Earth's land surface. Bottomlands may be salt-covered flats. Eolian processes are major factors in shaping desert landscapes. Polar deserts (also seen as "cold deserts") have similar feat… See more

A desert is a region of land that is very dry because it receives low amounts of precipitation (usually in the form of rain, but it may be snow, mist or fog), often has little coverage by plants, and in which streams dry up unle… See more

Deserts usually have a large diurnal and seasonal temperature range, with high daytime temperatures falling sharply at night. The diurnal range may be as much as 20 to 30 °C (36 to 54 °F) and the rock surface exp… See more

Deserts and semi-deserts are home to ecosystems with low or very low biomass and primary productivity in arid or semi-arid climates. They are mostly found in subtropical high-pressure belts and major continental … See more

Humans have long made use of deserts as places to live, and more recently have started to exploit them for minerals and energy capture. Deserts play a significant role in human culture with an extensive literature. … See more