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Global Deserts: A Geomorphic Comparison

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Geomorphology of Desert Environments

Abstract

Among the most fascinating aspects of deserts is their diversity. The North American deserts (or ‘semi-deserts’ in the terminology of Old World observers) exemplify the range in climates, land-forms, and biota possible in a relatively small area of year-around moisture deficiency. Clearly, Utah’s Canyonlands, California’s Death Valley, and Arizona’s Saguaro National Monument present altogether different landform associations, each of which can be understood only by independent analysis. However, even such diverse landscapes as these hardly prepare one for the unique phenomena encountered in portions of the hyperarid ‘true deserts’, such as the Chilean Atacama and the eastern Sahara of Libya and Egypt, each of which is itself morphologically distinctive.

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  1. Theodore M. Oberlander
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  1. Department of Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo, 14261, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Athol D. Abrahams

  2. Department of Geography, University of Keele, ST5 5BG, Keele, Staffordshire, UK

    Anthony J. Parsons

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Oberlander, T.M. (1994). Global Deserts: A Geomorphic Comparison. In: Abrahams, A.D., Parsons, A.J. (eds) Geomorphology of Desert Environments. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8254-4_2

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