ECOLOGY

Deserts

ALL deserts have infrequent rain and thus, some

vegetation

Most deserts are only sparsely dotted with sand

dunes

Not shaped by wind, but mostly by

water

Mostly shaped by water due to lack of these things that stabilize the soil

plants

In this model (Chilean) desert, the average annual rainfall is between one and two millimeters, and no rain at all falls for years at a time. But when it does rain in such a desert, a lot of rain—as much as several centimeters—can fall in a short time.

Atacama

All the ___ moves during these massive precipitation in short times

rain

Most deserts in the world are NOT mountainous and barring rare sand dunes are instead mostly

plains

In these type of deserts temperatures are so low most of the year, and sources of atmospheric moisture are so far away, that rainfall is very low and most surface water is frozen.

High latitude

In these type of deserts located in moderate temperatures, rainfall occurs because of two reasons.

Mid latitude

Rainfall can be low because an area is located in the ____ of a large continent, far away from marine sources of atmospheric moisture, like the ____ of Asia.

interior

The deserts of the southwestern United States are of this kind

rain-shadow

Or rainfall can be low because these things located upwind extract most of the moisture from the air.

mountains

These areas are characterized by calm winds, dry conditions, and clear skies because the air at these latitudes sinks, creating high pressure. The sinking air limits cloud formation, leading to deserts and hot, dry climates in many places (like the Sahara Desert in the north and the Atacama Desert in the south).

Low latitude

Most of the great deserts of the world, in North Africa and the Middle East, are of this kind.

low latitude

This type of transport refers to sediment, salt, or dunes being created by this force

wind

This type of transport refers to the major type of sediment movement in dese

Fluvial

This type of structure is a fan-shaped or cone-shaped body of loose sediment deposited at the foot of a steep stream valley.

Created because streams falter at the end of a mountain and transport shit to the bottom

Alluvial

The tendency for the depositional surface to be built forward, in the direction of sediment transport

progradation

Alluvial fans are characteristic of deserts with high relief, especially in this place

Southwestern US

These type of deserts have significant variations in elevation, featuring dramatic landscapes such as mountains, plateaus, deep valleys, and canyons. This is in contrast to flat, low-relief deserts like sandy plains or salt flats.

high relief

alluvial fans are not restricted to arid or semiarid regions: they form even in humid regions where there is high relief and rapid weathering but they are not easily noticeable due to high amounts of this phenomenon.

vegetation

These are rocks that have rigid solid surfaces and tend to be abraded by the impact of flying sand grains.

Ventifacts

This is removal of sediment by wind action

deflation

If you dig just below the surficial coarse layer of this thing you find a mixture of coarse material with much finer sediment.

desert pavement

Rocks resistant to weathering often form this layer,a small fraction of a millimeter thick (0.05–0.1 mm), are known from actual chemical analyses to be rich in iron and especially manganese, mostly caused by dew or rain maybe.

desert varnish