In the northwest of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia, there is the Great Sandy, or, as it is also called, the Western Desert (English Great Sandy Desert). The article will briefly describe the features, climate, flora and fauna of this geographical object.
Location
Where is the Great Sand Desert? On the map above, the center of this object is approximately marked. It has the form of an elongated spot with irregular outlines that approximately coincide with the boundaries of the Canning sedimentary basin. Its area is about 360 thousand square meters. km From West to East, the Great Sandy Desert stretches for 900 kilometers, from north to south - for 600. It originates from the coast, from the world-famous Eighty Mile Beach, and extends deep into the mainland, located to the west of the other Australian desert - Tanami.
In the south, this desert extends to the so-called Tropic of Capricorn and passes into the Gibson desert, located in the central part of Western Australia, the least populated on the continent, and having a much more modest size. The Bolshaya Peschanaya desert on the mainland is the second largest and second only to the Victoria desert, whose area is about 400 thousand square meters. km
It is considered the most uninhabited territory on the globe. For the first time, travelers from Europe visited the desert in 1873. An expedition led by Major Warburton crossed it from east to west. The Great Sandy Desert owes these people its first description. Another traveler, Frank Hann, carefully studied the Pilbara region in the late 90s of the 19th century and gave a name to some geographical features. They laid the foundation for the study of the Big, or, as it is also called, the Australian Red Desert.
Origin, education
This desert in Australia is a salt marsh. This means that it was formed from intensely evaporating, highly mineralized groundwater, occurring at a relatively shallow depth, or due to salts of marine sediments. And this is true, although it is hard to believe: many millions of years ago, in the Devonian period, in the place of a deserted space, an ocean stretched in which life was boiling. The Canning Basin is one of the places where the Devonian giant barrier reef fossils are best preserved.
Relief features
The terrain is hollowing to the north and west, and its height above sea level in this part of the desert is about 300 meters, and in the south - 400-500 meters. Thanks to the flat terrain, views of the rocky hills that rise in the Pilbara region and Kimberley district are opened. A characteristic feature of this desert in Australia is the ridges of sand dunes from 10-12 to 30 meters high, which are up to 50 meters long and stretched from west to east, parallel to each other, over a vast territory. Their location is due to the direction of the winds. Sand in the desert has a red tint. Between the ridges are salt marshy plains with sparse vegetation.
Another feature is the presence of numerous salt marshes, sometimes formed in a chain. In the south, the best known is Disappointment solonchak lake, and Mackay in the east. Despite the dry climate, they are occasionally filled with water due to frequent rains and thunderstorms in the corresponding season, from November to April. In addition, Gregory’s salt marsh, for example, is fed by a river called Stert Creek. However, the huge rate of moisture evaporation, due to high average daily temperatures, negates even the amount of moisture that is quite abundant for the desert (200 mm per year in the south, up to 450 in the north) that this area receives. The rest of the water quickly seeps through the sands and goes underground.
Climate features
In Australia, this area is the hottest. So, in the hottest months in the Southern Hemisphere, from December to February, the temperature here during the day reaches 35-42 degrees Celsius, rising to the south. In winter, it drops to 20 or less degrees above zero, and at night it can even freeze. It has a typical dry continental climate.
Vegetable world
The vegetation in this area, as one would expect, is rather poor. In desert conditions, only plants with special devices can survive - long roots, strong stems, stiff leaves or thorns. So, on the sand dunes themselves, spinifex grows, a xerophytic cereal with sharp spikes and a rigid stem, unsuitable even for livestock feed. Here you can find the evergreen flower grevillea, which the natives love to eat because of its sweet nectar. Between the dunes, on clayey salt marshes, in the northern part of the desert, low-growing eucalypts mainly grow, and in the south - acacia shrubs.
Most plants in the Great Sandy Desert have a shorter period of flowering and seed ripening. They wait for an unfavorable dry time in a sleeping state and sprout instantly after precipitation in order to be able to give seeds and again fall into a state of rest.
Animal world
The fauna of the desert is a little more diverse than the flora. Here you can find both endemic species - dingo dogs, red kangaroos, comb-tailed mice, and imported after the continent was discovered by Europeans. Among them, for example, camels that have taken root perfectly on the continent, as well as sheep whose pastures are located in the northern part of the area, along the coast. Two endemic species, the northern marsupial mole and the rabbit bandicoot, are included in the so-called red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The first of them is recognized as an endangered species, the second - vulnerable, in need of protection.
Birds are mainly represented by several species of parrots. Not far from solonchaks and rivers flowing into them, one can find several species of passerines and finch.
The most extensive list of reptiles. Among them are several species of geckos, a moloch lizard (endemic); snakes, including deadly to humans because of their poison (Acanthopis pyrrhus). Of the insects in this area, termites, ants, bugs, grasshoppers, butterflies, desert scorpions (Cercophonius squama) learned to survive.
Population
There is no permanent population in this region, and there is nothing strange in this, given the local conditions. Here you can find only a few groups of aborigines of the Nyinga and Caradieri tribes wandering from place to place in search of food and water. According to the natives themselves, they have the ability to find water lenses in the desert.
A tourist route has now been laid through the desert in a northeastern direction, along the old cattle-driving route called Canning, so tourists can also be found in this area, albeit extremely rarely.
