Deserts and Sand and Ice

The two biggest deserts are the Antarctic and the Arctic. Even though they are covered with ice, they are dry enough to be considered deserts.


The Sahara, spanning an area of 8.5 million square kilometers (covers 29.6% of Africa) is the world’s hottest desert and third in size. The Sahara is only twenty percent sand, the rest of it is mostly made up of  bare rock, gravel, and pebbles.

Not so Sandy Deserts

Believe it or not, most of the Earth’s deserts are not composed entirely of sand. Much, about 85% of them, are rocks and gravel. The largest, the Sahara, fills about 1/3 of Africa and still growing, which would nearly fill the continental United States.