|
Rub al Khali
Rub al Khali [Arab.,=empty quarter], great desert of the Arabian peninsula, c.225,000 sq mi (582,750 sq km); one of the largest sand deserts in the world. The desert occupies much of the southern interior of the peninsula, from the highlands of the Nejd (to the north) to the plateaus of Hadhramaut...
Read more
|
|
Sahara
Sahara [Arab.,=desert], world's largest desert, c.3,500,000 sq mi (9,065,000 sq km), N Africa; the western part of a great arid zone that continues into SW Asia. Extending more than 3,000 mi (4,830 km), from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, the Sahara is bounded on the N by the Atlas Mts., steppe...
Read more
|
|
Simpson Desert
Simpson Desert c.50,000 sq mi (130,000 sq km), barren region of central Australia, predominantly in the southeastern portion of the Northern Territory, extending S into Queensland and E into South Australia. Long, parallel sand dunes, up to 150 ft (46 m) high and 1,500 ft (457 m) apart, run for mil...
Read more
|
|
|
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell , 1868-1926, British traveler, author, and government official, one of the builders of the modern state of Iraq , grad. Oxford, 1887. From 1899 on she journeyed extensively in Persia, Anatolia, and Syria and early in 1914 reached Haïl in the Arabian Desert. In W...
Read more
|
|
oryx
oryx , name for several small, horselike antelopes , genus Oryx, found in deserts and arid scrublands of Africa and Arabia. They feed on grasses and scrub and can go without water for long periods. Oryxes are light in color with dark patches on the face and legs. They have slight shoulder humps, ...
Read more
|
|
desert
desert arid region, usually partly covered by sand, having scanty vegetation or sometimes almost none, and capable of supporting only a limited and specially adapted animal population. The so-called cold deserts, caused by extreme cold and often covered with perpetual snow or ice, are quite distinc...
Read more
|
|
|
desertion
desertion in law, the forsaking of a station involving public or social duties without justification and with the intention of not returning. In military law, it is the abandonment of (or failure to arrive at) a place of duty without leave; in time of war, especially in the face of the enemy, deser...
Read more
|
|
|
Painted Desert
Painted Desert badlands on the northeastern bank of the Little Colorado River, NE Ariz., stretching c.200 mi (320 km) SE from the Grand Canyon; includes Petrified Forest National Park. Striking bands of color result from irregularly eroded layers of red and yellow sediment and bentonite clay.
...
Read more
|
|
|
Black Rock Desert
Black Rock Desert arid region of lava beds and alkali flats, NW Nev., in Toiyabe National Forest, stretching c.70 mi (110 km) NE from Gerlach. The Jackson Mts. rise to the east; the Black Rock Range to the west. A land speed record was set there in 1983. The desert has been the site of the Burning ...
Read more
|
|
|
oasis
oasis , an area within a desert where the water table reaches the surface, with enough moisture to permit the growth of vegetation. The water may come up to the surface in springs, or it may collect in mountain hollows. In deserts such as the Sahara, artificial oases have been successfully created b...
Read more
|
