A desert is a dry place that gets very little rain. As of November 2026, about one-third of Earth's land surface is desert. Let's look at the kinds of desert, and at what lives and happens in them.

There are four basic types of desert: high pressure, rain shadow, interior continental and coastal. A rain shadow desert forms on the far side of a mountain range, where the air has already lost its moisture. Some coastal deserts get almost no rain but are often damp with fog.

You may have heard that deserts are always hot and sandy. In fact, sand dunes cover only about 10 percent of the world's deserts. Others are dry expanses of rock, salt flats or even ice sheets. Some deserts are hot, but others have cold winters or are cold all year. As of November 2026, the largest desert in the world is Antarctica, a cold desert of ice.

The Atacama Desert in Chile is one of the driest places on Earth. As of November 2026, it is the driest desert outside the icy poles, and rain of 1 millimeter or more may fall there only once every 5 to 20 years. Death Valley is a long, narrow basin 282 feet, or 86 meters, below sea level, walled in by high, steep mountain ranges.

Desert tortoises sleep through the hottest part of summer in their burrows, in a state called estivation. A desert tortoise can store up to 40 percent of its body weight in water inside its bladder. In the desert heat, people should drink plenty of water and stay in the shade during the hottest part of the day.

An oasis is a place made fertile by fresh water in an otherwise dry region, where natural springs or underground water irrigate the land. Water can also come from the air. In the Namib Desert, the beetle Onymacris unguicularis stands head-down on dune ridges to collect water from fog.

Camels were domesticated more than 3,000 years ago, and people still use them to cross dry lands. People use camels to carry loads across the desert. You may have heard that most deserts are empty and lifeless. In fact, they are home to a variety of plants, animals and other organisms. After a big rain, flowers can bloom in the desert.

Words to know

• estivation: summer sleep
• oasis: watered place
• domesticated: tamed
• basin: low land
• moisture: wetness