Which is the largest hot desert in the world?
- A.Gobi
- B.Kalahari
- C.Sahara
- D.Atacama
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Sahara. The Sahara stretches across northern Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea and is the largest hot desert in the world. Note the qualifier in the question: the largest desert of any kind is Antarctica, because a desert is defined by how little precipitation it receives rather than by heat, and Antarctica is therefore a cold desert.
Option A, the Gobi, lies in Mongolia and northern China and is a cold desert of the mid latitudes, not a hot one. Option B, the Kalahari, in southern Africa, is much smaller than the Sahara. Option D, the Atacama in Chile, holds a different record: it is the driest desert on earth, with places that have gone for years without measurable rain. Papers set this question in both forms, so learn the pair together: Antarctica is the largest desert and the Sahara the largest hot desert.
Read the full article: Highest, Longest and Largest in the World: Static GK
Practice Questions
View allWhich is the largest and deepest ocean in the world?
- A.Atlantic Ocean
- B.Indian Ocean
- C.Pacific Ocean
- D.Arctic Ocean
Show answer
The Pacific covers a greater area than all the land on earth put together and is also the deepest ocean, holding the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest known point on the planet.
Read the full explanation →The deepest known point of the earth's surface, the Challenger Deep, lies in which trench?
- A.Mariana Trench
- B.Puerto Rico Trench
- C.Java Trench
- D.Peru-Chile Trench
Show answer
The Mariana Trench lies in the western Pacific, east of the Mariana Islands, and its deepest part, the Challenger Deep, is close to eleven kilometres below sea level.
Read the full explanation →Which river is conventionally regarded as the longest river in the world?
- A.Amazon
- B.Nile
- C.Yangtze
- D.Mississippi-Missouri
Show answer
The Nile flows north through north-eastern Africa for about 6,650 kilometres to the Mediterranean and is the river taken as the longest in the world in almost every textbook and examination.
Read the full explanation →Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world, is located in which country?
- A.Brazil
- B.Venezuela
- C.Zambia
- D.Canada
Show answer
Angel Falls drops 979 metres from the edge of a flat-topped table mountain called Auyan Tepui in the Guiana highlands of Venezuela, and is the highest uninterrupted waterfall in the world.
Read the full explanation →Which is the largest island in the world?
- A.Greenland
- B.New Guinea
- C.Borneo
- D.Madagascar
Show answer
Greenland lies between the Arctic and the Atlantic, is covered almost entirely by an ice sheet and is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Read the full explanation →