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A desert is defined as a region that receives less than 10 inches (250 mm) of precipitation on average per year. Antarctica receives very little snow but the snow it does receive never melts. It continues to pile up and compress into ice. Over millions of year the depth of the accumulated ice is quite deep.
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What is the largest desert and where is it located at?
The biggest desert is in North Africa and is called the Sahara Desert! Correction: Whilst the Sahara Deserts is indeed the largest hot desert, the world's biggest desert is Antarctica.
Do desserts have icecaps?
It depends on what you mean by icecaps. Figuratively there are desserts such as "Baked Alaska", made from meringue that simulate icecaps. Literally some sorbets are made and form an icecap that is edible and equally delicious.
Why does Antarctica not allow vast vegetation?
As it is the driest place in the world, it's a frozen desert. Their is very little moisture as it is all locked in ice both in the form of icecaps and snow. Plants couldn't survive in Antarctica as they are made of water, water expands as it freezes therefore the plants that are transported there would die in a few minutes of being planted if you could find any soil to plant them in. You can test this your self, freeze a flower and pull it out of the fridge, let it defrost, it will be really soft and feel rotten no matter how healthy it was before you put it in.
In what form is the majority of the world's fresh water?
Frozen. In glaciers and icecaps.
How could the ice caps form in Antarctica if it is a desert?
That an area is a desert does not mean that it is hot, just that there is very little precipitation. Antarctica gets very little snow, but it is cold enough that what little snow falls never melts. It has been like this for millions of years, allowing the snow to pile up and compress into ice sheets several miles thick.
Where does most fresh water on earth remain?
Frozen in the icecaps (in the form of ice at the poles).
What makes the Antarctic a desert?
Yes. Antarctica is a dry polar region with about five percent humidity, no liquid lakes or rivers, it is the driest continent on earth. The interior of Antarctica is considered the world's driest desert because the extreme cold freezes water vapour out of the air. Annual snowfall on the polar plateau is equivalent to less than 5 cm of rain.
What is like on Mars?
Mars has a red rockey surface and once had water on it. in the winter icecaps form and in the summer they form rivers
Could you find an iceberg on a desert?
No, icebergs are found at sea, not in a desert. However, some icebergs form from glaciers and ice sheets in the Antarctic Desert.
Why are icecaps not purest form of freshwater?
Because - over time - the ice absorbs pollutants present in the atmosphere.
Why don't thunderstorms happen in Antarctica?
Antarctica is a polar desert and most of Australia is a hot desert. The reason why Antarctica is a desert is because the polar easterlies and the karabatic winds (winds where cold air sinks to lower elevation and soon reach the shores of antarctica where it sinks to the surface of the ocean) blows winds from the south pole into the southern oceans. These winds blow most of the moist air away from Antarctica leaving Antarctica a dry and windy place. Antarctica is also too cold for water to evaporate so storm clouds do not really form and bring precipitation into the surface. Antarctica could be one of the driest places on earth. The reason why there is snow in Antarctica is because Antarctica is so cold that whenever it snows, Antarctica would preserve its snow. This can build up layers of old snow creating glaciers and ice sheets that in long periods of time sink into the shores of Antarctica where they melt and break into icebergs. Australia lies in 30 degrees latitude (where cloudless air tends to sink) creating drier air and the trade winds blow moist air from the Pacific ocean into eastern Australia where the great dividing range creates a rainshadow effect leaving middle and western Australia dry. The Australian desert rarely but can receive precipitation by storm clouds going through the great dividing range into the Australian desert or high pressure systems can steer cyclones and storm clouds into mainly northern Australia bringing wind and rain into the desert. The Australian desert is also hot enough for water to evaporate so it's a bit more likely to form clouds than Antarctica.
Why are the parts of Antarctica not covered by glaciers like a desert?
Antarctica is frigid because it does not receive as much heat from the sun as other parts of earth do, so it is colder. To be a desert you must have little to no rainfall, like Antarctica. Antarctica is like this because (as already mentioned) the sun doesn't give it much heat , so very little (if any) evaporation occurs. Without evaporation clouds do not form and no rainfall occurs. In normal deserts (hot deserts) their is no rain because their is no water in the deserts to evaporate, and winds do not carry clouds with rain to the deserts.Antarctica is a desert because the ice is dried ice s o it doesn't water.
