Antarctica, the largest desert in the world

Which is the largest desert in the world? Antarctica is the largest desert in the world. Why is Antarctica a desert?

What do you imagine when you think of a desert? Sand, dunes, heat? Not all deserts are hot. There are cold and frigid deserts like the Atacama Desert in Chile, whose temperatures drop below freezing during the cold months.

But, did you know that there is a desert that instead of sand is filled with water? Yes, frozen water. I mean Antarctica the frozen desert.

The Sahara vs Antarctica

For many people, the Sahara, which extends for about 8.6 million square kilometers, is the largest desert in the world; But from a technical point of view, Antarctica, with its ice plains and 14.2 million square kilometers, could be the largest desert in the world, as indicated by the Encyclopedia Britannica .

We could say that the Sahara is the largest hot desert on the planet . And Antarctica, the coldest and most deserted place on the planet.

[Read: Did you know that the South Pole is much colder than the North Pole? You know why? ]

Why is Antarctica a desert?

Many books define a desert as an area that receives less than 250mm of precipitation (rain, snow, fog, and mist) per year. In this sense there are many types of deserts , including subtropical, coastal and polar . What they all have in common is that it is an arid and windswept landscape, making it very difficult for plants and animals to find stability. All this also applies to Antarctica.

Most of Antarctica is covered by wind-carved ice fields and rugged snow mountains. We are not surprised why there are only two plants that flower. And most of the animals that live there (penguins, seals, whales and seabirds) depend on shellfish to survive.

[Read: 🥶 Did you know that if you breathed in the coldest place on Earth you would die instantly? ]

Is there a desert in Antarctica or is Antarctica a desert?

This is quite an interesting question.

All the deserts on the planet only cover an area of ​​its continent, but the Antarctic Polar Desert extends across all of Antarctica .

Coastal regions receive about 200 mm (7.9 in) of precipitation per year, while its interior receives about 50 mm (less than 2 in) per year.

Also, it never rains in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in East Antarctica. In fact, he doesn’t know when was the last time it rained there.

Thus, the entire continent classifies as a polar desert .

Antarctica is also the coldest place on Earth , in fact if a human breathes there, they die instantly.

The ice desert, ideal for researchers

In October 2019, a strange, never-before-seen creature was discovered in Antarctica . The fascinated explorers documented the discovery with a video. More strange sea creatures have been found under the ice of Antarctica .

The Antarctic Desert is the largest desert on Earth

The Antarctic Desert is the largest desert in the world , with a total of 14.2 million square kilometers. Antarctica is the coldest, windiest and most isolated continent on Earth, and is considered a desert because its precipitation can be less than 51 mm in the interior.

The second largest desert in the world is also cold: the arctic desert.

And the third largest desert in the world is the best known: Sahara. Which is the largest hot desert in the world.

What do you think?