Deserts are defined by their lack of moisture, which makes the landscape unwelcoming. The document discusses the different types of deserts found around the world and their defining characteristics. It also describes the surfaces common in deserts like sand, hamadas, and various landforms created by aeolian processes like erosion. Wind is a major factor that shapes desert landscapes through the formation of different dune patterns like linear, star, and barkhan dunes. Despite harsh conditions, deserts contain delicate ecosystems that have adapted to the dry environment.

1. DESERTS

2. What is a
desert?
What do deserts
look like?
What makes
a desert?
Where are
deserts
found?

3.  Deserts can be found all over the world.

4.  Deserts are the most brutal areas here on Earth.
 Their most fundamental characteristic is a
shortage of available moisture for plants, resulting
from an imbalance between precipitation and
evaporation. Which means they can frequently
lose more moisture through evaporation than they
receive from annual precipitation.
 Dry soil becomes sensitive to erosion processes
which carries sand and shapes rocks, creating a
beautiful but unwelcoming landscapes.

6. Types of deserts

7. Sahara of Northern Africa, Kalhari of Southern
Africa, and the Great Australian Desert.
Subtropical deserts

8. Gobi, Takla Makan
Continental deserts

9. Deserts east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California &
Nevada, East of the Cascades of Oregon and Washington, and
East of the Andes Mountains in South America.
Cold winter deserts

10. Atacama Desert of coastal Peru, Namib Desert of
coastal South Africa.
Coastal deserts

11. Northern Greenland, and ice- free areas of
Antarctica.
Polar deserts

12. Desert surfaces
Sand
covers only
about 20%
of desert
surfaces,
most of it in
vast sand
sheets and
sand seas.

13. Desert surfaces
Hamadas
are
relatively
level plains
that are
covered by
boulders
and
exposed
bedrock.

14. Aeolian processes
Erosion is the
process by
which soil and
rock are
removed from
the Earth's
surface by
exogenic
processes such
as wind or water
flow, and then
transported and
deposited in
other locations.

15. Aeolian processes
Wadi is the
Arabic term
that refers to
a valley. In
some cases it
can also refer
to a dry
riverbed that
only
experiences
water when
there is a
heavy rain
fall.

16. Aeolian processes
A mushroom
rock, also
called a
pedestal rock,
is a naturally
occurring rock
whose shape,
as its name
implies,
strikingly
resembles a
mushroom.

17. Aeolian processes
A yardang
is a
streamlined
hill carved
from
bedrock by
the dual
action of
wind
abrasion,
and
deflation.

18. Aeolian processes
Tafoni are
small cave-
like features
found in
granular rock
such as
sandstone,
with rounded
entrances and
smooth
concave
walls, often
connected.

19. Dunes
 Wind plays an important role in deserts. It
moves large amounts of soil around, covering
much of the world's deserts with sand. About
half of the sand fields of hot deserts exist as
sand dunes.
 A dune is a hill of sand built by either wind or
water flow.
 The shapes and sizes of dunes change
constantly, but they can be grouped into a few
simple categories: linear, star, and barkhan
dunes.

20. Linear (longitudinal) dunes
Dunes

21. Star dunes
Dunes

22. Crescent sand dunes, also called barkhan or
transverse
Dunes

23. At first glance, it may seem as there is not much
in a desert. The land may seem empty. The quiet
suggests that there are few or no animals. The
weather may not seem friendly to life. But if we
look closer, a desert is made of ecosystems. In
an ecosystem, plants, animals, land, water and
air work together.
Deserts can be filled with life!

24. Thank you for attention!
Igor Nemanjić