Deadliest and Most Dangerous Deserts on Earth
Chihuahuan Desert The Chihuahuan desert is the largest desert habitat in North America, stretching approximately 200,000 square miles. The weather makes this desert deadly, with hot spells in the summer and freezing temperatures in the winter. New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas are the states within the desert, and a portion is in Mexico.
Great Basin Desert The Great Basin is a large cold desert around 190,000 square miles in North America. Covering most of Nevada, the Great Basin stretches into parts of Idaho, California, Wyoming, and Oregon. A very dry place, this large stretch of land is one of the only cold deserts in North America, and it gets most of its precipitation from snow.
Gobi Desert The Gobi desert is around 500,000 mi² large and is the 6th largest desert in the world. This deadly desert is located in South Asia, near Mongolia and northern China. Around 5% of the region is sand, and the desert is filled with mountains, rocky cliffs, and canyons. Sandstorms are common in the desert, and extreme weather like droughts and harsh winters.
Mojave Desert For a long time, the Mojave desert was considered the hottest place on earth, with regions of the desert like Death Valley reaching record-breaking temperatures peaking at 134 °F (56.6°C). While the Mojave desert is the smallest of the major deserts in North America, it is also one of the driest and hottest. Primarily located in the United States, the Mojave desert can be found in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and California and covers 47,877 mi² of land.
Arabian Desert Not only is the Arabian Desert one of the largest of its kind in the world, but it is also one of the hottest. This desert covers around 900,000 square miles and is located mostly in Saudi Arabia. The heat of this desert is hotter than most places on earth, and record temperatures have been recorded to get as high as 133 °F (56.1°C).
Deserts of Australia Australia is one of the driest continents in the world and is filled with many deadly animals adapted to live in the desert to go along with its extreme climate. Around 1,000,000 square miles of Australia is covered in desert, and this land gets very little rain.
Taklamakan Desert In China, the largest desert is the Taklamakan Desert, which is also one of the most dangerous in the world. What makes this desert deadly is the extreme temperatures reached across the landscape. Being around 123,550mi² large, the Taklamakan desert sets records with temperatures up to 152°F (66.6°C). A large portion of this desert is barren landscapes of rocks and sand.
Antarctica Stretching over 5.275 million mi², Antarctica is the largest desert in the world, and it is also among the most dangerous. Antarctica is classified as a desert since it only receives around 2 inches of water annually. It does not rain in most parts of the continent, even though the area holds around 60% of the earth’s freshwater. Extreme colds are usual in the Antarctic desert, and temperatures get to record lows as cold as −128.6 °F (−89.2 °C).
Sahara Desert The Sahara desert covers North Africa and is the largest hot desert in the world. Being 3.552 million mi² large, there are endless dangers within this African wasteland. The Sahara desert has been a deadly area for millions of years, which is why saints have named the area the most dangerous place in earth’s history.