Key Facts about Sahara Desert

About Sahara Desert:

• The Sahara, located in Northern Africa, is the world's largest hot desert and the third most extensive desert after the polar deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic.
• It spans over 9,200,000 sq. km (8% of the earth’s land area).
• The Sahara Desert encompasses a major portion of North Africa, occupying about 31% of the entire African continent.
• The countries within the Sahara Desert are Morocco, Mali, Mauritania, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Chad, the Niger Republic, some parts of Sudan, a small portion of Nigeria, and a small part of Burkina Faso.
• The desert is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Mountains on the northern side; the Red Sea on the eastern side; the Atlantic Ocean on the western side and the semiarid Sahel region on the southern side.
• The majority of the Sahara is made up of barren, rocky plateaus, as well as salt flats, sand dunes, mountains, and dry valleys.
• The large Nile and Niger rivers, along with the seasonal lakes and aquifers, provide the main source of water for the major desert oases.
• The highest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi (3,415m), a volcano located in the Tibesti Mountains, Chad.
• The Sahel region serves as a transition zone between the hot desert in the north and the humid savannas of Sub-Saharan Africa in the south.

Q1: What are dunes?

A dune is a mound of sand formed by the wind, usually along the beach or in a desert. Dunes form when wind blows sand into a sheltered area behind an obstacle. Dunes grow as grains of sand accumulate.

Source: NASA shares stunning images of unusual greenery in the Sahara Desert following rainfall