DESERTS
A desert
is an area of land where less than 25 centimeters of rain falls every year. At
the moment about 3O% of the land on Earth is part of a desert, but deserts are
getting bigger.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF DESERTS
There are
four types of desert. They form in different ways near the equator, near the
ocean, near mountains, or inland. Only 25% of deserts are sandy, and the rest
are made from stones. All deserts are very dry, but they can be hot or cold.
Antarctica is a desert. It's very cold, but it doesn't snow there very often.
The largest hot desert in the world is the Sahara Desert in Africa.
WHY DO PEOPLE EXPLORE DESERTS?
People
have explored deserts for many years. Early desert explorers went to find
things to trade or new trade routes. Not much grows in the desert, but
underground there can be salt, oil, gold, the precious stones like diamonds.
Today, explorers want to learn about the people who live in deserts, and some
just want an adventure!
Archaeologists
have found villages buried under the sand. In 1922 an American explorer, Roy
Chapman Andrews, found lots of dinosaur bones in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.
Explorers
keep discovering new things in the desert because the wind blows the sand
around and changes the landscape!
DESERT EXPLORERS
Many early
desert explorers wanted to be the first to travel all the way across a desert.
The first person to travel across the Sahara Desert was a French explorer
called Rene Caille. In 1828 he traveled across the Sahara with camels because
they can walk a long way without food or water.
In 1887 a
British explorer, Francis Younghusband, crossed the Gobi Desert in 70 days. The
first women explorers to cross the Gobi Desert were British explorers, Mildred
Cable, Evangeline French, and Francesca French, who traveled in a mule-cart in
about 1926.
The first
European explorers went to the coast of Australia, but no one knew what was in
the center. In 1860 two British explorers, Robert Burke and William Wills, and
an Australian explorer called John King, were the first explorers to cross
Australia from the south to the north. They brought camels from India to help
them.
The first
woman explorer to cross the Australian desert from east to west was an
Australian explorer called Robyn Davidson. In 1977 she traveled 2,735 kilometers
by camel from Alice Springs in central Australia to the west coast.
In 1992,
American scientists discovered the lost city of Ubar on a space radar image.
Then some explorers led by a British explorer, Ranulph Fiennes, went to find
the city in the desert in Oman.
Answer
the questions
1.
How do
we define desert?
2.
How many
deserts are there on Earth?
3.
How many
types of deserts are there?
4.
What can
desert be?
5.
What is
the largest hot desert?
6.
What can
people find in desert to trade?
7.
What can
archeologists find under the sand?
8.
Have
people explored all the desert? Is there anything more to be found?
9.
Who was
the first to cross the Sahara Desert?
10.
Why do
people use camels in deserts?
11.
Who was
the first to cross Gobi Desert? How long did it take?
12.
Who was
the first woman to cross Gobi Desert?
13.
Who was
the first to cross Australian Desert?
14.
How did
scientists discover Ubar?
15.
Where is
Ubar?
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