Where on Earth are Deserts?

Where on Earth are Deserts?
Author: Bobbie Kalman
Publisher: Explore the Continents
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780778704997

Explores what deserts are and the different types while detailing specific deserts around the world.

Deserts of the Earth

Deserts of the Earth
Author: Michael Martin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2004
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780500511947

From the Rub al-Khali and the Sinai to the Great Sandy, the Great Basin and the Kalahari, Michael Martin, an internationally renowned photographer, has travelled through every desert on Earth, crossing Asia, Australia, the Americas and Africa, to compile this beautifully photographed volume. Far from being bleak and barren wastelands, these deserts boast natural features of staggering beauty. Afghanistan’s Bamian region is notable for its deep turquoise lakes set amidst towering, rocky mountains. The Danakil’s unnamed volcanoes glow in the Ethiopian night, while Chile’s Atacama region harbours geysers that can erupt at any moment. In addition to these awe-inspiring landscapes, Martin introduces us to the stoic peoples who eke out an existence in such inhospitable environments.

Desert

Desert
Author: Roslynn D. Haynes
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2013-11-15
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 178023208X

Sand. Cacti. Lizards. Mirages. Deserts call to mind exotic places, a sense of adventure and freedom, but also thirst and desolation. In Desert, Roslynn D. Haynes takes a fresh look at this geographical feature and cultural entity as it becomes an increasingly threatened environment. Considering the immense geographical diversity of deserts from the Sahara to Antarctica, Haynes explores the intriguing and often bizarre ways plants and animals adapt to such a hostile environment, as well as the diverse peoples that have inhabited deserts and evolved unique lifestyles and cultures in response to their surroundings. She asks why Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all originated in the deserts of the Middle East and traces the connections between the minimalism of desert existence and the pursuit of a spiritual dimension. Finally, she describes the allure deserts have exerted on the West, the significance of desolate landscapes in literature and film, and the revolution in artists’ responses to the desert as an empty space and as an inspiration for new visual techniques with which to view it. Ending with a look at how commercial and military interests threaten desert ecologies, Desert casts new light on our view of these seemingly barren places.

DK Eyewitness Books: Desert

DK Eyewitness Books: Desert
Author: Miranda Macquitty
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 66
Release: 2000-05-31
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0756668107

Warm deserts make up an estimated 1/5 of the Earth's surface and present unique challenges to the creatures, plants, and people that survive the temperature extremes. Desert is a detailed guide to some of the most inhospitable places on Earth, and offers spectacular full-color photographs to give readers an "eyewitness" view of life in the desert. See thestunning sand dunes of the Namib Desert, a Bedouin in full wedding dress, the desert in bloom, a jewel wasp, and a camel's regalia. Learn how sand dunes form, how a few honeypot ants store food for a whole nest in their own bodies, and howa mummy is preserved in sand. Discover why a Tuareg woman never uncovers her face, what makes a dromedary different from a Bactrian camel, the mystery of Timbuktu, and why some desert animals have big ears, and much, much more! Discover the harsh world of hot and cold deserts and the people, plants, and animals that live in them.

When the Sahara Was Green

When the Sahara Was Green
Author: Martin Williams
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2021-10-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0691228892

The little-known history of how the Sahara was transformed from a green and fertile land into the largest hot desert in the world The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, equal in size to China or the United States. Yet, this arid expanse was once a verdant, pleasant land, fed by rivers and lakes. The Sahara sustained abundant plant and animal life, such as Nile perch, turtles, crocodiles, and hippos, and attracted prehistoric hunters and herders. What transformed this land of lakes into a sea of sands? When the Sahara Was Green describes the remarkable history of Earth’s greatest desert—including why its climate changed, the impact this had on human populations, and how scientists uncovered the evidence for these extraordinary events. From the Sahara’s origins as savanna woodland and grassland to its current arid incarnation, Martin Williams takes us on a vivid journey through time. He describes how the desert’s ancient rocks were first fashioned, how dinosaurs roamed freely across the land, and how it was later covered in tall trees. Along the way, Williams addresses many questions: Why was the Sahara previously much wetter, and will it be so again? Did humans contribute to its desertification? What was the impact of extreme climatic episodes—such as prolonged droughts—upon the Sahara’s geology, ecology, and inhabitants? Williams also shows how plants, animals, and humans have adapted to the Sahara and what lessons we might learn for living in harmony with the harshest, driest conditions in an ever-changing global environment. A valuable look at how an iconic region has changed over millions of years, When the Sahara Was Green reveals the desert’s surprising past to reflect on its present, as well as its possible future.

Desert in Modern Literature and Philosophy

Desert in Modern Literature and Philosophy
Author: Aidan Tynan
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2020-06-18
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1474443370

Aidan explores the ways in which Nietzsche's warning that 'the desert grows' has been taken up by Heidegger, Derrida and Deleuze in their critiques of modernity, and the desert in literature ranging from T.S Eliot to Don DeLillo; from imperial travel writing to postmodernism; and from the Old Testament to salvagepunk.

Geomorphology of Desert Environments

Geomorphology of Desert Environments
Author: A. D. Abrahams
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 1021
Release: 2013-04-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401582548

Over the last twenty years there has been a major expansion of knowledge in the field of landforms and landforming processes of deserts. This advanced-level book provides a benchmark for the current state of science, and is written by an international team of authors who are acknowledged experts in their fields.

The Desert

The Desert
Author: Michael Welland
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2014-09-15
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1780233892

From endless sand dunes and prickly cacti to shimmering mirages and green oases, deserts evoke contradictory images in us. They are lands of desolation, but also of romance, of blistering Mojave heat and biting Gobi cold. Covering a quarter of the earth’s land mass and providing a home to half a billion people, they are both a physical reality and landscapes of the mind. The idea of the desert has long captured Western imagination, put on display in films and literature, but these portrayals often fail to capture the true scope and diversity of the people living there. Bridging the scientific and cultural gaps between perception and reality, The Desert celebrates our fascination with these arid lands and their inhabitants, as well as their importance both throughout history and in the world today. Covering an immense geographical range, Michael Welland wanders from the Sahara to the Atacama, depicting the often bizarre adaptations of plants and animals to these hostile environments. He also looks at these seemingly infertile landscapes in the context of their place in history—as the birthplaces not only of critical evolutionary adaptations, civilizations, and social progress, but also of ideologies. Telling the stories of the diverse peoples who call the desert home, he describes how people have survived there, their contributions to agricultural development, and their emphasis on water and its scarcity. He also delves into the allure of deserts and how they have been used in literature and film and their influence on fashion, art, and architecture. As Welland reveals, deserts may be difficult to define, but they play an active role in the evolution of our global climate and society at large, and their future is of the utmost importance. Entertaining, informative, and surprising, The Desert is an intriguing new look at these seemingly harsh and inhospitable landscapes.