Deserts Dry LEVELED BOOK • T

Deserts Dry
A Reading A–Z Level T Leveled Book
Word Count: 1,226

Written by Chuck Garofano

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 Deserts Dry
Glossary

dormant inactive but able to become active

(adj.) again (p . 13)
evaporates changes from a liquid to a gas;
(v.) dries up (p . 4)
irrigation describing the practice of supplying
(adj.) water to land or crops to promote
growth (p . 6)
minerals solid, natural materials that do not
(n.) come from a plant or animal (p . 14)
moisture a small amount of water in the
(n.) form of a liquid or a vapor (p . 12)
nomads people who move from place
(n.) to place with no permanent
home (p . 10)
oasis (n.) a fertile place in a desert where
there is water (p . 6)
resource a supply of something valuable
(n.) or very useful (p . 7)
Index

Andes Mountains, fog, 13, 15

12, 13, 14 Mongolia(n), 8, 9, 10
camels, 4, 5, Nile, 6 Written by Chuck Garofano
dunes, 4, 5, 6, oil, 7, 11, 15
Egypt, 6 Tuareg, 5 www.readinga-z.com

16
Photo Credits:
Title page: © iStockphoto.com/Chee-Onn Leong; page 5: © REUTERS/David
Rouge; page 7: © REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra; page 8: © Martin Moos/Lonely Planet
Images/Getty Images; page 9: © Sérgio Nogueira/Alamy; page 10: © Aurora
Photos/Alamy; page 14: © iStockphoto.com/Rob Broek; all other photos: © ArtToday

The city of Tucson, Arizona, lies in the Sonoran Desert.

Conclusion

So, what can you find in the desert that you

might not have expected? Lakes of salt, dense
fogs, and underground oceans of oil? Ancient
civilizations, expert horse herders, and mining
towns? You may have thought of deserts as
Deserts Dry
Level T Leveled Book Correlation empty, lifeless places . But for thousands of
© Learning A–Z LEVEL T
Written by Chuck Garofano years, plants, animals, and humans have
Fountas & Pinnell P
All rights reserved. Reading Recovery 38 known deserts as sources of life, riches,
www.readinga-z.com
DRA 38 and wonder .

Deserts Dry • Level T 15

 But what the Atacama lacks in animals,
it makes up for in minerals . The Andes are
volcanic mountains, and their volcanic activity
brought copper, nitrates (an ingredient in
fertilizer and explosives), and sulfur to the
surface . Salt is also abundant here in marshy
lakes . Mining companies build entire towns
for workers who dig up these minerals . Port
cities spring up along the shore where the
minerals are shipped around the world . All
food and water must be trucked in or shipped Table of Contents
by boat . Because of the desert’s unforgiving
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
climate, miners are some of the very few
people who have ever made their homes in The Sahara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
the Atacama .
The Gobi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Atacama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Trucks carry ore out of a mine in the Atacama desert.

14 Deserts Dry • Level T 3

 Some moisture does visit the Atacama . In the
spring, snow on the Andes melts and flows in
rivers across the desert to the Pacific . But these
rivers don’t fill with water often, and they are
Dunes are actually found in only a few deserts. usually steep, narrow, and quick-moving, so the
water does not have a chance to spread out and
Introduction
sink in . The only other reliable form of moisture
Shut your eyes and imagine that you are is fog that rolls in off the cold ocean . Many
standing in a desert . What kinds of things do plants have developed ingenious ways to catch
you see around you? Camels, cactuses, and this fog . Some plant leaves gather droplets of
sand dunes? This is what most people think fog and direct them toward their roots . Small
of when they imagine the desert . But deserts “cloud forests” of these plants can grow in
are far more rich and varied than the sandy sheltered areas along the coasts where the fog
landscape you might imagine . is thick enough .

Other than the cloud forests,

A desert is any area where more water Llamas
almost no plant life grows in the
evaporates, or dries up, than falls as rain .
Atacama . Some plants exist as
Deserts can be hot, cool, or cold . In fact, both
dormant, or inactive, seeds that
the North and South poles are considered
spring to life after a rain shower,
deserts because all of the water there is frozen .
which may come only once every ten years .
Deserts make up almost one-third of the land
There are few animals in the Atacama besides
on Earth, covering mountains, canyons, and
rodents and insects . The chinchilla, a popular
glaciers . In this book, you will find out more
new pet, lives here . Llamas and alpacas, furry
about the surprising inhabitants of three
relatives of the camel, can also be found in damp
amazing deserts: the Sahara, the Gobi, and
areas near rivers and high in the mountains .
the Atacama .

4 Deserts Dry • Level T 13

 The Sahara

On many maps of Africa, the entire top

third of the continent is colored yellow or pale
beige . This color represents the vast, dry land
of the Sahara Desert—by far the largest desert
in the world . This is where we get many of
our images of the desert . Great, ocean-like
landscapes of yellow sand dunes cover one-
fifth of the Sahara . The Tuareg people, in their
blue, flowing robes and turbans, lead caravans
The Atacama is one of the highest deserts. of camels across the sandy desert to trade salt .
But the Sahara is much more than sand .
The Atacama

Just west of South America’s Atacama

Desert is the largest body of water in the
world—the Pacific Ocean . The Atacama lies
along the Pacific Coast, squeezed in a narrow
band between the ocean and the high Andes
Mountains . Temperatures in the Atacama are
pleasant, between 50° and 70°F (10°–20°C) .
One would think that being near the ocean
would give the Atacama some moisture,
but this desert is possibly the driest place on
Earth . In some places in the Atacama, it may
have never rained in human memory . Many people in the Sahara Desert still rely on camels.

12 Deserts Dry • Level T 5

 It might surprise you to learn that the world’s The Gobi has very few natural resources
largest desert contains one of the world’s longest such as oil . But there is a fascinating sort of
rivers . The Nile flows along the eastern edge of treasure here—fossils . The dry climate and
the Sahara, bringing life-giving water to crops lack of humans have preserved delicate fossils
and cities along its banks . This river allowed the for millions of years . Today, scientists flock to
great civilization of ancient Egypt to survive the Gobi for new discoveries . It was here that
among the dunes . In ancient Egypt, as today, the first dinosaur eggs were found, and where
people carved irrigation, or watering, channels the fossil of a feathered reptile led scientists to
to carry water from the riverbed to thirsty crops, believe that birds may be related to dinosaurs .
animals, and people . There
is also water hidden deep
underground in the Sahara .
In some places, it seeps close to
the surface, creating an oasis,
A pyramid built by
ancient Egyptians or a small spot of green land .

But don’t get the idea that the Sahara is moist

and pleasant . In some areas, no rain falls for
years, the temperature can get as high as 136°F
(58°C), and powerful winds whip up sun-
blocking dust storms . The Sahara is home to
thorn trees, shrubs, and low-growing grasses .
Several kinds of antelope survive here, as do
many rodents, birds, and reptiles . One kind of
reptile, a skink, is known as a sandfish because
it can “swim” through the sand . Archaeologists dig for fossils in the Gobi.

6 Deserts Dry • Level T 11

 A worker walks through a plant where gas is made from oil in Algeria.

People have lived in the Sahara for centuries .

Northern Africa is a natural trading area for
people from Africa, Europe, and Asia . Rich
ancient cities survived on irrigated crops and
the wealth of spices, fabrics, and precious
metals and gems passing through . During the
A Mongolian horseman herds his horses.
Middle Ages, northern Africa was a center of
art, writing, science, and learning .
Most of the people who inhabit the Gobi
are nomads, people who move from place to Today, a treasure lies hidden under the
place, often in search of food . Some of these Sahara . The desert holds the world’s largest
nomads rely on horses for almost everything reserves of oil, a liquid that many people depend
they need to live—meat, milk, hides for tents, on heavily for fuel and energy . Some countries
and transportation . These nomads, who live in of the Sahara have become incredibly wealthy
Mongolia, are excellent horse trainers who rope from selling oil . Unfortunately, many nations
and race horses as well as any rodeo rider . have fought wars over this valuable resource .

10 Deserts Dry • Level T 7

 Many parts of the Gobi are high, dry, and
mountainous . The soil is rocky and salty, so
there are few plants other than tough grasses
and shrubs . But these grasses are enough to
support grazing animals such as Mongolian
horses, antelope, and gazelle . Also feeding
on the grasses are many kinds of gerbils and
another small rodent called the jerboa .

The Gobi is more remote than the Sahara.

The Gobi
Horses drink from salt pans in the Gobi Desert.
Mongolia and northern China, which lie
deep within the immense continent of Asia,
Do You Know?
are home to the high, dry Gobi Desert . It Normally, naturally occurring salt in the soil gets
might surprise you that the Gobi is cold— dissolved by rainwater and carried in rivers to the ocean.
it can get as low as –40°F (–40°C) . Like the This is why the ocean is salty. But in the desert where there
is little rain to dissolve the salt and the rivers dry up before
Sahara, the Gobi Desert was often crisscrossed reaching the ocean, salt is abundant in the soil. In some
by traders bringing goods to and from Asia . places, rivers carry salt into temporary marshes or lakes
But unlike the Sahara, the Gobi is too harsh that dry in the desert air, leaving behind huge areas of
white, crystallized salt. These areas are known as salt pans.
and remote to support cities .

8 Deserts Dry • Level T 9