This presentation is about the Arabian desert. It talks about the key features found in the Arabian desert.

1. GEOGRAPHY
ARABIAN DESERT IN THE MIDDLE EAST
BY
Ziphozekhethelo MSIBI

2. •
A desert is a dry area with sparse vegetation that supports a community of
unique plants and animals that have adapted to the harsh environment
(Smith, 2021).
The Arabian Desert has harsh environments with high summer temperatures
(May to October) and extremely low and unpredictable precipitation (200
mm/a) that occurs mostly in winter (Bhatt et al., 2020). It is the second largest
desert on Earth (Holm et al., 2020).
BACKGROUND

3. Arabian Desert is a great desert region that covers southwestern Asia (Holm et al.,
2020).
The Arabian Desert takes up practically the entire Peninsula as it is 2,330,000
square kilometers in size. Although a considerable chunk of it sits outside Saudi
Arabia, there are also significant portions in Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, the United
Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen (Holm et al., 2020).
The Arabian Desert is bounded by the Syrian Desert to the north, the Persian Gulf
and the Gulf of Oman to the northeast and east, the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of
Aden to the southeast and south, and the Red Sea to the west. The modern
kingdom of Saudi Arabia encompasses a large portion of the Arabian Desert (Holm
et al., 2020).

4. Figure 1: Arabian desert (Holm et al., 2020).

5. • One of the greatest
sand dunes in the
world is found in the
Arabian desert, which
is its defining feature
(Edgell, 2006).
Numerous mountain
ranges, some of which
reach heights of 3,700
meters, break up its
relief, and it is
surrounded on three
sides by steep
escarpments (Mala,
2020).
Sand covers at least
one-third of the desert,
including the Rub al-
Khali, which is thought
to have one of the
planet's most hostile
climates (Mala, 2020).
There are no
permanent bodies of
water, however to the
northeast is the Tigris-
Euphrates river
system, while to the
south is Yemen's Wadi
Air (Mala, 2020).
More than one-third of
the desert's surface is
covered in quartz sand
(Holm et al., 2020).
TYPES OF LANDSCAPES THAT FOUND IN ARABIAN DESERT
Figure 2: Sand Dunes in the Arabian desert (Mala, 2020).

6. •
Although the desert dunes are dry, they can
retain rainfall to depths of one meter or
more, nourishing xerophytes (Holm et al.,
2020).
After spring rains, the normally barren
gravel plains turn green, revealing a diverse
range of desert flora (Holm et al., 2020).
The mountainous highlands rise in the
northwestern Hejaz region, the Asir region,
Yemen, and Oman, however erosion in the
interior has unearthed smaller ranges (Holm
et al, 2020).
The majority of the west's 18 volcanic fields
are in Hejaz, and some of them span an
area of more than 25,000 square kilometers
(Holm et al., 2020).
The Arabian Desert appears as a vast
expanse of light sand-colored terrain with
occasional indistinct lines of escarpments
or mountain ranges, black lava flows, or
reddish systems of desert dunes stretching
to the horizon. (Holm et al., 2020).
It is characterized by broad plains. And the
escarpment is rugged, with short, steep
canyons and ridges (Holm et al, 2020).
TYPES OF LANDSCAPES THAT FOUND IN ARABIAN DESERT (
Continued).

7. • Jordan east of the Dead Sea has a moderately elevated plateau,
which is a common desert feature. Most drainage channels in the
Arabian Desert are either dry or ephemeral, flowing only when there
is heavy rain. In shaping the landscape, the intermittent action of
running water is more effective than the erosive action of the winds.
(Holm et al., 2020).
TYPES OF LANDSCAPES THAT FOUND IN ARABIAN DESERT (Continued)
Figure 3: Mount Tuwayq, Arabian
Desert, Saudi Arabia (Holm et al
2020).
Figure 4: Camel riding in Wahiba Sands desert, a part of
the Arabian Desert, in the Sultanate of Oman (Mala, 2020).

8.  The forms of weathering and disintegration have formed the geomorphology of the
Promontory and, together with the impact of the vegetation, these forms have delivered
the soils. The nature of these soils changes with shake sort, and shake sort depends on a
assortment of topographical components that incorporate the environment of statement,
the impacts of changes in climate through time and other topographical forms( Parker,
2010).
The landforms within the Eastern Area of Saudi Arabia are highlights of a relict geology
created amid late Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene time beneath a assortment of
climates( Parker et al, 2006).
Within the wetter climatic stages, stream disintegration was the principal degradational
prepare, though within the dryer stages pedimentation and related forms overwhelmed
(Chapman, 1971).
LANDSCAPE EVOLUTION.

9.  Landform improvement was too affected by the structure and composition of the bedrock
and by structural and conceivably eustatic developments. Amid the late Pliocene and
Pleistocene, a calcareous duricrust created dynamically on the geography, and within the
late Pleistocene or mid-Holocene this outside was profoundly weathered. More as of late,
desertic gradational forms have won (Rausch et al, 2014).
At present there are no lasting waterways or lakes in the Middle eastern Promontory as
potential yearly dissipation surpasses inputs of precipitation and runoff. However, later
field mapping and partisan imagery have been utilized to recognize the presence of a
number of dry lake bowls between the direct rise ridges (White et al, 2001).
These palaeolakes relate to pluvial periods when the climate was much wetter than now,
and are Holocene in age (Parker et al, 2004).
LANDSCAPES EVOLUTION (Continued).

10. THANK YOU

11. • Bibliography/References
Bhatt, A., Gallacher, D.J. and Souza-Filho, P.R.M. (2020). Germination strategies of annual and short-lived
perennial species in the Arabian Desert. Journal of Arid Land, 12(6), 1071–1082. doi:10.1007/s40333-020-0023-8.
Edgell, H.S., 2006. Arabian deserts: nature, origin and evolution. Springer Science & Business Media.
Mala, A. (2020). The Arabian desert. World Atlas. Available from: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/where-does-
the-arabian-desert-lie.html
Holm, D. A., Ochsenwald, W. L. and Owen, L. (2020). Arabian desert. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available from
https://www.britannica.com/place/Arabian-desert
Parker, A.G., Eckersley, L., Smith, M.M., Goudie, A.S., Stokes, S., Ward, S., White, K. and Hodson, M.J.,
2004. Holocene vegetation dynamics in the northeastern Rub'Al-Khali desert, Arabian Peninsula: a phytolith,
pollen and carbon isotope study. Journal of Quaternary Science, 19(7), 665-676.

12. • Bibliography/References
Parker, A.G., Eckersley, L., Smith, M.M., Goudie, A.S., Stokes, S., Ward, S., White, K. and Hodson, M.J., 2004.
Holocene vegetation dynamics in the northeastern Rub'Al-Khali desert, Arabian Peninsula: a phytolith, pollen
and carbon isotope study. Journal of Quaternary Science, 19(7), 665-676.
Parker, A.G., 2010. Pleistocene climate change in Arabia: developing a framework for a homini dispersal over the
last 350ka. In The evolution of human populations in Arabia (pp.39-49). Springer. Dordrecht.
Parker, A.G., Preston, G., Walkington, H. and Hodson, M.J., 2006. Developing a framework of Holocene climate
change and landscape archaeology for the lower Gulf region, southeastern Arabia. Arabian archaeology and
epigraphy, 17(2), 125-130.
Smith, J. M. (2021). Desert. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available from: https://www.britannica.com/science/desert
White, K., Goudie, A., and Al-Farraj, A., 2001. Mapping the geochemistry of the northern Rub'Al Khali using
multispectral remote sensing techniques. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms: The Journal of the British
Geormophological Research Group, 26(7), 735-748.
Rausch, R., Simon, T., Al Ajmi, H. and Dirks, H., 2014. The scarp lands of Saudi Arabia. Arabian Journal of
Geosciences, 7(6), 2437-50.