Location
The Great Sandy Desert is located North West of Western Australia and through part of Central Australia. It is the second largest desert in Australia next to the Great Victoria Desert. It covers about 285,000 square kilometers and is the home of several different natural monuments.
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The Great Sandy Desert is a subtropical desert. Other subtropical deserts are found all around the globe. This includes south of North America, the coast of South America, North Africa as well as in South Africa, Southwest Asia, and Australia.
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Climate
The Great Sandy Desert goes through frequent droughts all year round due to its hot weather and high evaporation rate of water. However, there are rain falls that come in patches in the form of monsoon clouds and tropical cyclones. The months in between September and April are the wettest months in the entire year in this region. Around 30-40 thunderstorms take place every year further north but a lesser 20-30 thunderstorms down south. During winter months, the temperatures of the desert averages at around 40 degrees Celsius but cools down to an average of 26 degrees Celsius in the summer months. Depending on the time of the year, the temperature decreases about of 13 degrees for the low of the day. Australia runs through the the tropic of Capricorn between the 15th degree and 40th degree latitude lines. It is not to far under the equator so the climate is mostly hot and dry. In the Great Sandy Desert, the temperature is cooler and there is more precipitation the further south you go. Australian studies have shown that with global warming on its way, the dryer climates will become more dry and the damper climates will become wetter. Climate change will bring higher evaporation and precipitation levels causing extreme weather patterns.
Climatographs
The Climatographs above show the temperature, precipitation, and humidity levels in Broome WA and Alice Springs CA.
Residing Cities
Broome and Alice Spring are two Australian cities that reside the Great Sandy Desert and are known for being tourist cities. Broome is a small town with a population around 15 000 people. It is on the coast of Western Australia in the Kimberly region, and is the home of plenty tourist attractions. People in Broome participate in sports/recreations like golf, lawn bowling and football as well as other activities like fishing, camping, bird watching, and nature tours because of all of the natural tourist attractions. Alice springs has a population of around 28 000 people. Australia as a whole has similar food staples. Animals like the Emu, Cow, Lamb, and Pig are all a big part of Australian's daily food. Other food like Vagmete, Timtams, Milo, Minties, Weetbix, and Lamingtons are also popular in Australia. The reason that the food we eat in North American compared to the food eaten in Australia is different is because the climates there only allows certain crops to grow and certain animals to live in that environment.
Physical Features
The Great Sandy Desert contains several lakes and wetlands that are fed by river canals that only actively flow after a large rainfall. The desert is flat for the most part and has tall red sand dune fields that consist of sandstones, siltstones and mudstone ridges. The sand of the desert is extremely dry and does not contain many minerals making it hard for any plants to sustain life.
The Uluru also known as the Ayers Rock, is a sandstone rock formation in Central Australia. The Uluru Rock is 348m tall and reaches 863m above sea level making it the tallest sandstone rock in the world. The Uluru can also be considered as a monolith, which is a tall rock or stone that is considered as a monument of a sort. The Uluru started forming over 500 million years ago, and over time, the rock has turned red because the iron in the soil has been undergoing oxidation for millions of years.
Symbiosis
Symbiosis is the interaction of two living organisms that live in a close association together. There are three types of symbiosis, The first being commensalism. Commensalism is the concept that in a relationship between two living organisms, one of them benefits and the other one is not effected/ has a neutral response. For example, the kangaroos live under the shade of trees to receive shelter though the shade and the tree receives nothing in return although its not exactly effected negatively. The second is Mutualism which means that both organisms benefits off of each other. An example of this is when vultures feed on dead animals that potentially could be dangerous to other animals to save others from getting ill. Lastly the third type of Symbiosis is Parasitism. This concept is where one organism benefits and the other is harmed. An example of parasitism is when Ticks live beneath kangaroos fur. The ticks get a place to live and food to eat while the kangaroo is being negatively effected.
Section by Hailey Smith