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Surrounded by a desert of salt flats, Utah’s Great Salt Lake supports a number of salt- resistant animals like the brine shrimp, as well as the birds and other creatures that feed on them.

The world’s largest deserts, including the Sahara, the Arabian Desert, and the Australian Desert, lie roughly 30°N or 30°S of the Equator, in the so-called “horse latitudes.” Air heated up at the Equator rises, loses its moisture, and descends over these latitudes, becoming hot winds which dry up any moisture. Continental deserts, such as the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and China, lie in the center of the large landmasses we call con- tinents, far from the oceans which are the source of all rainfall. Rain-shadow deserts form near mountain ranges that cut

What Is a Desert?

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