Reference Edition
Field Reference for Natural Places Geography Atlas
Desert Hub

Drylands, salt basins, and arid plateaus.

The desert hub is for low-moisture landscapes where aridity, basin form, elevation, and coastal or continental exposure shape the terrain record.

Diagram of layered desert dunes, an arid basin, sparse vegetation, and a high sun.
Lead Records

Dryland anchors

Desert records should explain aridity, surface material, basin form, elevation, drainage scarcity, and the atmospheric or topographic controls that maintain dry conditions.

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Circumpolar Polar Dryland

Arctic Desert

A High Arctic dryland record linking polar islands, permafrost terrain, ice caps, seasonal meltwater, sparse precipitation, and ocean-facing margins.

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Polar Ice-Sheet Desert

Antarctic Desert

A polar dryland record linking ice-sheet plateaus, mountain divides, subglacial basins, outlet glaciers, ice shelves, and extreme cold.

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Desert Record

Atacama Desert

A dryland record linking plateau surfaces, salt basins, elevation, and coastal atmospheric control.

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Peninsula Arid Region

Arabian Desert

A peninsula desert record linking sand seas, plateaus, wadis, sabkha flats, coastal margins, and subtropical arid climate controls.

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Bolson and Plateau Dryland

Chihuahuan Desert

A North American high-desert record linking Mexican Plateau basins, bolsons, playas, limestone ranges, dry washes, and Rio Grande connections.

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Canyon-Cut Plateau Dryland

Colorado Plateau Desert

A Four Corners high-desert record linking layered tablelands, mesas, cliffs, canyon incision, Colorado River drainage, and elevation-driven climate contrasts.

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Great Salt Desert Basin

Dasht-e Kavir

An Iranian Plateau salt-desert record linking kavirs, playas, evaporite crusts, alluvial fans, dune belts, and endorheic drainage.

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Afar Rift Salt and Volcanic Desert

Danakil Desert

A northeastern African desert record linking faulted rift basins, below-sea-level salt plains, lava fields, saline lakes, alluvial fans, and hyperarid climate.

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Iranian Plateau Wind-Eroded Basin

Dasht-e Lut

A southeastern Iranian desert record linking kalut yardangs, active sand seas, stony plateaus, alluvial fans, salt landforms, and hyperarid basin climate.

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Inner Asian Dryland Record

Gobi Desert

A cold continental desert record linking gravel plains, enclosed basins, dry drainage, mountain rain shadows, and steppe margins.

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Interior Basin Cold Desert

Great Basin Desert

A western U.S. cold-desert record linking Basin and Range relief, enclosed drainage, playas, salt flats, winter cold, and rain-shadow aridity.

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Australian Laterite Upland Desert

Gibson Desert

A central Western Australian desert record linking laterite uplands, stony plains, breakaways, sand ridges, seasonal salt lakes, paleodrainage, and continental aridity.

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Australian Sandplain and Dune Desert

Great Sandy Desert

A northwestern Australian desert record linking red sandplains, longitudinal dunes, Canning Basin geology, salt lakes, ephemeral drainage, and monsoonal climate controls.

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Australian Sand Ridge Dryland

Great Victoria Desert

An Australian desert record linking sand ridges, stony plains, salt lakes, claypans, paleodrainage, and arid climate controls.

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Southern African Sand Basin

Kalahari Desert

A southern African dryland record linking sand sheets, low basin relief, pans, fossil valleys, summer rainfall gradients, and internal drainage.

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Central Asian Sand Desert

Karakum Desert

A Turkmen lowland record linking sand plains, dune ridges, takyrs, Amu Darya sediment, paleochannels, and continental aridity.

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Eastern Saharan Sand-and-Basin Desert

Libyan Desert

An eastern Saharan record linking the Great Sand Sea, sedimentary plateaus, enclosed depressions, oasis groundwater, and the Gilf Kebir–Uweinat uplands.

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Turan Lowland Sand Desert

Kyzylkum Desert

A Central Asian dryland record linking red sands, residual uplands, river-borne sediment, internal drainage, and continental aridity.

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Coastal Dune System

Namib Desert

A coastal desert record linking dune fields, gravel plains, fog, ephemeral rivers, Atlantic influence, and escarpment margins.

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Levant Rift-Margin Dryland

Negev Desert

A southern Israel dryland record linking limestone plateaus, makhtesh erosion cirques, loess plains, wadis, flash floods, and the Arava rift margin.

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Nile–Red Sea Rocky Desert

Nubian Desert

A northeastern African dryland record linking sandstone plateaus, stony plains, wadis, the Nile corridor, and Red Sea highland margins.

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Southwestern Arid Landscape

Mojave Desert

A Southwestern desert record linking Basin and Range relief, dry washes, playas, rain-shadow aridity, and upland margins.

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Basin and Borderland Dryland

Sonoran Desert

A North American desert record linking basin-and-range relief, alluvial fans, dry washes, Gulf margins, and seasonal rainfall.

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Peruvian Coastal Desert

Sechura Desert

A northwestern Peruvian coastal-desert record linking sandy plains, dunes, shallow basins, episodic drainage, Pacific upwelling, and El Nino flooding.

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Australian Longitudinal Dune Desert

Simpson Desert

A central Australian desert record linking parallel dunes, interdune corridors, claypans, ephemeral drainage, and Lake Eyre Basin controls.

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Australian Sandplain and Range Desert

Tanami Desert

A north-central Australian desert record linking red sandplains, low ranges, stony rises, pans, ephemeral drainage, and monsoon-influenced aridity.

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Levant–Mesopotamia Stony Plateau

Syrian Desert

A western Asian dryland record linking the Hamad plateau, basalt fields, gravel plains, wadis, salt flats, the Euphrates margin, and winter-rain steppe transitions.

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Cold Steppe Dryland Record

Patagonian Desert

A southern South American dryland record linking Andean rain shadow, steppe plateaus, gravel plains, dry valleys, and Atlantic margins.

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Iberian Intramontane Badlands

Tabernas Desert

A southeastern Spanish dryland record linking a former marine basin, marl-and-sandstone badlands, gullies, ramblas, episodic runoff, and mountain-sheltered aridity.

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Desert Record

Sahara Desert

A North African arid-region record linking sand seas, rocky plateaus, dry basins, mountain massifs, and desert margins.

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Tarim Basin Dryland

Taklamakan Desert

A Tarim Basin dryland record linking dune fields, mountain-front fans, endorheic drainage, saline flats, and continental aridity.

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Monsoon-Margin Dryland

Thar Desert

A northwestern Indian subcontinent dryland record linking dunes, alluvial plains, Aravalli margins, ephemeral drainage, and monsoon-edge aridity.

Thumbnail image credits 32 sources

Images are stored locally from Wikimedia Commons. Each centre-cropped thumbnail remains under its listed licence, with creator and source details below.

  1. Arctic Desert — Николай Гернет, CC BY-SA 4.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  2. Antarctic Desert — MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC, Public domain. Centre-cropped for display.
  3. Atacama Desert — NASA, Public domain. Centre-cropped for display.
  4. Arabian Desert — Aidas U., CC BY 3.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  5. Chihuahuan Desert — National Park Service Digital Image Archives, Public domain. Centre-cropped for display.
  6. Colorado Plateau Desert — World Wide Gifts, CC BY-SA 2.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  7. Dasht-e Kavir — Klára Nováková, CC BY-SA 4.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  8. Danakil Desert — Skilla1st, CC BY-SA 4.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  9. Dasht-e Lut — Ninaras, CC BY 4.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  10. Gobi Desert — Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 3.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  11. Great Basin Desert — NASA, Public domain. Centre-cropped for display.
  12. Gibson Desert — Gazjo, Public domain. Centre-cropped for display.
  13. Great Sandy Desert — NASA, Public domain. Centre-cropped for display.
  14. Great Victoria Desert — Marian Deschain, CC BY-SA 3.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  15. Kalahari Desert — Emilfarb at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Centre-cropped for display.
  16. Karakum Desert — David Stanley, CC BY 2.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  17. Libyan Desert — Saharate, CC BY-SA 4.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  18. Kyzylkum Desert — トムル, CC0. Centre-cropped for display.
  19. Namib Desert — Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC, Public domain. Centre-cropped for display.
  20. Negev Desert — Hagai Agmon-Snir حچاي اچمون-سنير חגי אגמון-שניר, CC BY-SA 4.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  21. Nubian Desert — Photograph: NASA, Public domain. Centre-cropped for display.
  22. Mojave Desert — Daniel Mayer (mav), CC BY-SA 3.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  23. Sonoran Desert — Joe Parks from Berkeley, CA, CC BY 2.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  24. Sechura Desert — Alfredobi, Public domain. Centre-cropped for display.
  25. Simpson Desert — Christopher Watson (http://www.comebirdwatching.blogspot.com/), CC BY-SA 3.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  26. Tanami Desert — Hesperian, CC BY-SA 3.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  27. Syrian Desert — Emilfarb at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Centre-cropped for display.
  28. Patagonian Desert — Mariano, CC BY-SA 3.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  29. Tabernas Desert — Dgalan, CC BY-SA 4.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  30. Sahara Desert — Project Apollo Archive, Public domain. Centre-cropped for display.
  31. Taklamakan Desert — Pravit, CC BY-SA 4.0. Centre-cropped for display.
  32. Thar Desert — sushmita balasubramani, CC BY 2.0. Centre-cropped for display.