Introduction
Hello and welcome to Brendan and Harry's website on the Sahara Desert.Today we will be presenting to you our knowledge of the Sahara Desert. About one fifth of the world’s surface is desert. But what is a desert? A desert is a barren land or area that receives less than 25 centre metres of precipitation a year. There are over 60 deserts in the world and these deserts are made up of sand, ice, snow and dunes. The largest desert in the world is a shock to some, but it is Antarctica as it receives x amount of precipitation a year. The largest HOT desert in the world is the Sahara Desert in Africa. The largest desert in Australia is the Great Victoria Desert which funnily enough isn’t even in Victoria, it is in Western Australia and covers a small amount of South Australia.
Sahara Desert
The Sahara Desert is the largest hot desert in the world. It covers 9,000,000 square kilometres of the Northern part of Africa and goes over at least 10 countries including Egypt, Libya, Chad, Algeria, Mali, Sudan, Niger, Tunisia, Mauritania and Morocco. This means that the Sahara desert is nearly as large as the United States of America.
This humongous desert inhabited people as early as 6000 BCE and has done so ever since. There are approximately 14 that live in the Sahara desert today. As said earlier, a desert is a place or area that receives less than 25 centre metres of precipitation a year. The Sahara desert though only takes in 7.6 centre metres of precipitation. Here in Melbourne, from May through to October, each month we have more rainfall than the Sahara’s yearly precipitation. That is extraordinary! It is also possible that it may rain twice a week in the Sahara and not rain for years.
According to calcademy, 70% of the Sahara is gravel plains, 15% sand dunes and the other 15% is rocky plateaus. So as you can see, a desert is more than just a whole lot of sand dunes. In fact, there is one sand dune called the Libyan Erg that is larger than France.
During World War II, there was a fighter plane that was being piloted by Flight Sgt Dennis Copping that crashed in the Sahara after problems with landing wheels. He was flying to the desert base when he crash landed into the desert. The plane 70 years on was well preserved and is in quite good knick apart from the crash impact. Unfortunately for Dennis, the nearest town was more than 300 kilometres away.
The temperature of the Sahara is outstanding as it can reach up to 55 degrees Celsius but at night be terribly cold. Through satellite pictures, scientists have discovered something extraordinary and that is that the Sahara grows larger and shrinks smaller over long period of times.
Written by Harry.
Sahara Desert
The Sahara Desert is the largest hot desert in the world. It covers 9,000,000 square kilometres of the Northern part of Africa and goes over at least 10 countries including Egypt, Libya, Chad, Algeria, Mali, Sudan, Niger, Tunisia, Mauritania and Morocco. This means that the Sahara desert is nearly as large as the United States of America.
This humongous desert inhabited people as early as 6000 BCE and has done so ever since. There are approximately 14 that live in the Sahara desert today. As said earlier, a desert is a place or area that receives less than 25 centre metres of precipitation a year. The Sahara desert though only takes in 7.6 centre metres of precipitation. Here in Melbourne, from May through to October, each month we have more rainfall than the Sahara’s yearly precipitation. That is extraordinary! It is also possible that it may rain twice a week in the Sahara and not rain for years.
According to calcademy, 70% of the Sahara is gravel plains, 15% sand dunes and the other 15% is rocky plateaus. So as you can see, a desert is more than just a whole lot of sand dunes. In fact, there is one sand dune called the Libyan Erg that is larger than France.
During World War II, there was a fighter plane that was being piloted by Flight Sgt Dennis Copping that crashed in the Sahara after problems with landing wheels. He was flying to the desert base when he crash landed into the desert. The plane 70 years on was well preserved and is in quite good knick apart from the crash impact. Unfortunately for Dennis, the nearest town was more than 300 kilometres away.
The temperature of the Sahara is outstanding as it can reach up to 55 degrees Celsius but at night be terribly cold. Through satellite pictures, scientists have discovered something extraordinary and that is that the Sahara grows larger and shrinks smaller over long period of times.
Written by Harry.