The Deserts Quiz – Facts Worth Knowing

Take the deserts quiz to learn why Antarctica counts as the largest desert, how dry the Atacama really is and what lies beneath the Sahara's dunes. Ten questions cover facts worth knowing.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Records
What is the largest desert in the world?
Hot
What is the largest hot desert?
Dry
Which desert is one of the driest places on Earth?
Asia
The Gobi Desert lies mainly in which two countries?
Africa
Which desert covers much of Botswana?
Africa
Which desert along the Atlantic coast is considered the oldest in the world?
Sand
Roughly how much of the Sahara is covered by sand dunes?
Asia
The Rub' al Khali, or Empty Quarter, is part of which desert?
India
The Thar Desert lies on the border between India and which country?
History
Rock art shows the Sahara was once green. About when did it become a desert again?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: What is the largest desert in the world?
Answer: Antarctica
A desert is defined by low precipitation, not heat. Antarctica gets very little snow and covers about 14 million square kilometers.
Q2: What is the largest hot desert?
Answer: Sahara
The Sahara covers about 9 million square kilometers across North Africa, almost the size of the United States.
Q3: Which desert is one of the driest places on Earth?
Answer: Atacama
Some weather stations in Chile's Atacama have recorded almost no rain for years. Its sky makes it ideal for telescopes.
Q4: The Gobi Desert lies mainly in which two countries?
Answer: Mongolia and China
The Gobi is a cold desert with harsh winters. Famous dinosaur fossils, including eggs, have been found there.
Q5: Which desert covers much of Botswana?
Answer: Kalahari
The Kalahari receives more rain than a true desert in places and supports animals such as lions, meerkats and gemsbok.
Q6: Which desert along the Atlantic coast is considered the oldest in the world?
Answer: Namib
The Namib in Namibia may have been dry for at least 55 million years. Its red dunes are among the tallest on Earth.
Q7: Roughly how much of the Sahara is covered by sand dunes?
Answer: About a quarter
Much of the Sahara is rocky plateau and gravel plain. Sand seas, called ergs, cover only part of it.
Q8: The Rub' al Khali, or Empty Quarter, is part of which desert?
Answer: Arabian Desert
The Rub' al Khali is the largest continuous sand desert in the world, mostly in Saudi Arabia.
Q9: The Thar Desert lies on the border between India and which country?
Answer: Pakistan
The Thar, or Great Indian Desert, is one of the most densely populated deserts in the world.
Q10: Rock art shows the Sahara was once green. About when did it become a desert again?
Answer: About 5,000 years ago
During the African Humid Period, the Sahara had lakes, grasslands, hippos and giraffes before drying around 5,000 years ago.

The Deserts Quiz – What Makes a Desert

Deserts receive less than about 250 millimeters of precipitation a year. They form under high-pressure zones near the tropics, in rain shadows behind mountains, far from oceans or beside cold ocean currents, as with the Atacama and Namib.

Deserts cover about a third of Earth's land. They can be hot, like the Sahara, or cold, like the Gobi and Antarctica. Plants and animals survive with clever adaptations: camels store fat, cacti store water and many creatures stay underground during the day.

What This Quiz Teaches

This quiz is a fast way for students and travelers to compare the world's great deserts.

Why Antarctica is the largest desert
Which desert is driest
How much of the Sahara is sand
Which desert is oldest
How the Sahara was once green

Did You Know?

The Arctic is also classified as a polar desert.
Death Valley in the Mojave holds the world's air temperature record.
Dunes can move several meters a year as wind pushes sand.
The Atacama hosts major observatories such as ALMA.
Fog nets in the Atacama collect water from coastal mist.