By: David H.
Submitted: 2009-10-12 04:43:43 | Word Count: 635
Sahara Desert is extremely a vast non polar desert. It is larger than Australia and virtually as large as United States. Sahara is a recognizable and historical place where many inhabitants choose to live despite of dry and harsh conditions.
The Sahara, a term which means “the great desert,” is the world’s hottest desert. It is also the world’s largest desert next to Antarctica. The Sahara Desert covers the wide region of North Africa. The full desert covers and crosses 11 countries including Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia.
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The Sahara Desert extends from east to west at approximately 1,610 kilometers or about 1,000 miles wide, and almost 5,150 kilometers or 3,200 miles long. The entire desert has a sum of about 9.1 million square kilometers or more than 3 and a half million square miles.
The land formations of the desert are shaped by wind (eolian) or by irregular rainfall. Some of the areas get less than 10 inches of rain in a year and some years have no rain at all. The desert is largely covered by huge sand dunes. Sahara is also made up of sand seas (also called erg), stone plateaus (also called hamada), area of gravel plains (also called reg), salt flats (also called shatt), and dry valleys (also called wadi).
Red Sea and Egypt bound the desert in the east, the Atlantic Ocean on the west, the Mediterranean Sea and Atlas Mountains on the north, and the valley of the Niger River on the south.
In Western Sahara, the landforms have varying elevation because of wide sand dunes and boulder plain. The rainfall is very minimal and almost entirely no water surfaces but has a number of underground watercourses that flows from mountains. The waters find its way to the surface and become oases. Plants in this area grow freely because of the rich soil and the water supply is possible that results an excellent crop production.
The north and south parts of Sahara have a region of thin grassland, taller trees, and desert shrubs where moisture accumulates. The northern boundaries of Sahara produce 100mm of precipitation annually.
The Sahara reaches Mediterranean Sea and some portions of Libya in the northern limit. It has a Mediterranean climate like rainy season. The southern boundaries of Sahara bring about 150 mm (about 6 inches) of precipitation each year. In central Sahara, the area is hyper arid, with only few flora and fauna survive.
The Libyan Desert in Sahara is considered as the most arid or driest part because only few oases exist here with nearly no moisture. The landforms are consisting of huge sand dunes about 122 meters (400 feet) or more in height. The Libyan Desert is virtually devoid of any form of animal or vegetation.
Emi Koussi is the highest peak in the Sahara. It is a shield volcano located in the Tibesti range of the northern Chad. The volcano reaches 3,444 meters in altitude and rising 2,300 meters above boulder plains. The volcano is 60x80 kilometers wide.
Two calderas capped the volcano, the outer caldera being about 12x15 km in size while the smaller one is about 2 to 3 km wide and 350 m deep. Lots of cinder cones, lava domes, lava flows, and maars are found within the calderas and along the outer flanks of the shield.
The Nile River is the longest river in the world and the major river in Africa. It is said to be the life blood of Sahara because a very broad portion of the desert, about 3.4 million sq. km is being irrigated.
Nile River has two tributaries: the White Nile which starts from Great Lakes towards north touching Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan; and the Blue Nile which starts from Lake Tana and Sudan. The northern part of the river entirely flows through the desert, from Sudan to Egypt.
