World Geography: Desert, Trenches, Straits

Deserts of the World

S.NO	NAME	LOCATION	DESCRIPTION
1.	Atacama Desert	South America	It borders Peru and extends into Chile, it is an arid desert with no rainfall at many places. Deposits of Nitrate, Iodine, and Borax are found.
2.	Patagonia desert	South America	It is a temperate desert which spreads over Argentina and Chile. Oil and natural gas is extracted in this region.
3.	Sonora desert	North America	It is a hot desert which extends from the USA to Mexico.
4.	Sahara Desert	North Africa	It is the largest desert in the world.
5.	Namibian desert	Africa	It spreads over Namibia and the Benguela current is located on the western side of this dessert.
6.	Kalahari Desert	Africa	It is a hot desert which extends into South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. The Bushmen tribes inhabit this region.
7.	Rub-al-Khali	Arabia	It is the largest sandy desert in the world which is located in the peninsula of Arabia and extends up to Yemen. The nomads of this desert are called Bedouins.
8.	Gobi Desert	China, Mongolia	It is a cold desert where winters are severe, so it is sparsely populated.
9.	Great Victoria Desert	Australia	It spreads over south and western parts of Australia and it has deposits of iron ore, gold, copper, natural gas.
10.	Simpson desert	Australia	It is a hot desert located in central Australia.

Important Trenches and straits of the world

ALEUTIAN TRENCH: It is a deep ocean trench in the north Pacific and lies to the south of Aleutian Islands. Many active volcanoes are found here and an earthquake-prone zone.

MARIANA TRENCH: Located in Western Pacific Ocean it is the deepest ocean trench in the world. The deepest part of it is called ‘Challenger deep’.

KURIL TRENCH: It is one of the deepest trenches which is located in the Northern Pacific Ocean and is known for frequent earthquakes.

TONGA TRENCH: Located in the South Pacific Ocean, it is the steepest ocean trench in the world.

CAPE CANAVERAL: It is also called Cape Kennedy and is located on the east coast of Florida. It is the main launching site for manned space flights.

DRAKE PASSAGE: This separates the southern tip of South America and the continent of Antarctica. It is characterized by windy weather which makes it difficult to navigate.

MAGELLAN STRAIT: The Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean were joined by this strait at the southern part of South America.

MOZAMBIQUE CHANNEL: It is a part of the Indian Ocean which separates the eastern part of Africa from the island of Madagascar.

BAB-AL-MANDAB: This strait links Read Sea with the Arabian Sea and it separates Djibouti from Africa from Yemen of Asia.

HORMUZ STRAIT: This strait is a strategic sea route as it paves way for accessing oil-rich states of West Asia. It separates Iran from Oman and joins the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.

BOSPORUS STRAIT: The Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea were connected by this strait.

ENGLISH CHANNEL: This Channel separates Southeast England from France.

DENMARK STRAIT: The strait of Denmark is located in the North Atlantic Ocean and separates Greenland from Iceland. It is under the influence of West wind drift (Gulf Stream) and the water is always above freezing point.

STRAIT OF MALACCA: The Strait of Malacca is a strategic water passage located between Malaysia and Sumatra islands of Indonesia. It is one of the busiest sea routes which connects the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

BASS STRAIT: This strait is a busy shipping route which separates the Tasmanian island and Australia.