A desert is an ecosystem that is characterized by a dry climate.
From the Latin desertus , desert is an unpopulated and uninhabited place . The concept can be used in a strict and literal sense (when, in reality, there is no person in a geographical space) or in a symbolic way, to refer to the low attendance at an event, or to the fact that in a given place there are fewer people than expected. expected. It can also be used as an adjective or as a noun.
For example: "I thought there would be more people, but this bowling alley is deserted," "I don't like this town outside of the summer season: it's a desert," "I would like to take a trip through the desert with my new truck." » .
The desert as terrain or ecosystem
A desert can be sandy or rocky terrain that lacks vegetation due to low rainfall. In this case, a desert is an ecosystem or biome that receives less than 250 millimeters of precipitation per year.
The harsh environmental conditions mean that these deserts have little stable population. Some nomadic people live in certain deserts and move to look for food: "Martín traveled to Egypt to see the Sahara Desert" , "Many people die while trying to cross the Arizona desert to reach the United States" , "Australia has great deserts where some indigenous groups live .
The Sahara is one of the best-known deserts in the world.
Some examples
Lençois Maranhenses
It is a national park within which there is a desert of white dunes that touches the coast and then enters the continent for 50 kilometers. The accumulations of water that form between June and September, as a result of the rains, are especially attractive.
Atacama
It is the driest desert in the entire world and is located in Chile, delimited by the Andes mountain range and the sea to the sides, and by the Sechura Desert to the north. It is important to note that it is considered part of the Pacific Desert. Some researchers claim that the southern Peruvian coast also belongs to the Atacama Desert.
Uyuni Salt Flats
This white desert is located in Bolivia and its landscape is worth admiring. It is a large area (10,582 square kilometers) of salt. It is the largest of its category in the world and is located in the department of Potosí. In its soil , several minerals are abundant, among which lithium stands out.
Sahara
Also known as the Sahara , it is the largest hot desert on the planet, with a surface area exceeding 9 million square kilometers. It is located in the north of the African continent, which is divided into two zones : the Mediterranean, to the north, and the sub-Saharan, to the south. To the east is the Red Sea, and to the west is the Atlantic Ocean. It is older than 2 and a half million years and its name derives from an Arabic word that translates as desert .
Sonora
This North American desert is also known as the Gila Desert , after the river of the same name, and occupies part of the territories of the United States and Mexico, although it extends especially through California and Arizona. It stands out for being one of the largest and hottest deserts in the world, although its dimensions are considerably smaller than those of the Sahara: 311 thousand square kilometers. The saguaro cactus is just one of the many unique species of flora and fauna found in Sonora.
Desert as an adjective
As an adjective, desert allows us to name the contest, contest or auction that ends without a winner or winner .
«The literary contest was void since the jury considered that no work met the minimum quality requirements» y «The auction of the famous musician's guitar was a failure: there were no bids and it was finally deserted» son expresiones que muestran este uso.