21.2 - SW Asia Climate and Vegetation
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Transcript of 21.2 - SW Asia Climate and Vegetation
SW Asia:SW Asia:Climate and VegetationClimate and Vegetation
The region is dry – most of it averages just 18 inches of rain per year.
• Compare that with the 48 inches that Houston annually receives. That’s almost an extra three and a half feet of water.
Deserts
• Rub al-Khali
• “The Empty Quarter” or “The Place Where No One Comes Out”
• This is a massive desert in the southeastern Arabian Peninsula and is about the size of Texas.
• Some of the sand dunes can reach 800 feet tall. The Empire State Building is 1,250 feet tall.
• An-Nafud Desert
• North of Rub Al-Khali
• Syrian Desert
• North of An-Nafud
• Negev Desert
• Mainly located in Israel
Sometimes you’ll get an oasis.
• These are pockets of vegetation in the desert that are usually fed by underground springs.
Salt Deserts
• Not all deserts are just a bunch of sand. Sometimes they’re salt flats.
• Salt flats develop when winds evaporate the moisture in the soil, but leave behind the salts that were in that water.
• This is what happens in Iran when the mountains surrounding the country keep out rain.
• Iran has two salt flat deserts: the Dasht-e Kavir in the central area and the Dasht-e Lut in the east.
• They’re hot, uninhabited and nearly devoid of any flora or fauna
Dasht-e Kavir
Dasht-e Lut
This is the Bonneville Salt Flat in Utah.