Gibson Desert
The fifth largest desert in Australia after each of the Great Victoria Desert, the Great Sandy Desert, the Tanami Desert, and the Simpson Desert, and covers a large area of dry land in the state of Western Australia, with an area of 155 thousand km2.
The desert is characterized by sandy hills with a reddish color, and part of the desert has a rocky nature on which a desert plant grows, and in its center there are many pools of high salinity water, as in all desert regions in the world, the weather is generally hot, and the summer temperature rises to above 40 Celsius, and in winter the temperature is not less than 18 degrees Celsius during the day, and at night the temperature drops to about 6 degrees Celsius, and the rate of precipitation is low, ranging between 200 mm - 250 mm annually.
Location and label
Western Australia lies between Lake Disappointment and Lake MacDonald, west of the Great Sandy Desert, east of the Lesser Sandy Desert, and north of the Great Victoria Desert.
The desert was named in the nineteenth century after one of the explorers, Alfred Gibson, who decided to cross the desert and during his trip lost and died in it.
population
In the western part of the desert lives a large number of the indigenous inhabitants of Australia, and these are the descendants of the Australians who were residing in the continent of Australia before the arrival of the first British occupation ship to it, and many of whom were exterminated due to the exploitation of their weakness and enslavement by the colonialists, and they are dark-skinned and curly hair And primitive people live a nomadic life that depends mainly on traveling in search of water and food.
Read also:Where is Peru located?the plants
Among the most famous plants that grow in the Gibson Desert are:
- Triodia shrubs, which are very strong shrubs that can withstand hot weather conditions, and the maximum height of one bush reaches 2 m and a width of 3 m. It was used to build camps by the local population and previously for food if other foodstuffs were not available.
- Bloodwood is distinguished by its ability to hold water inside.
the animals
Of the animals that live in the Gibson Desert:
- Red Kangaroo: It is one of the largest chameleon animals in the world, and it lives in very hot areas. It adapts to it by jumping, which reduces the heat that falls on its feet and helps it cross distances to reach its food.
- The Thorney devil is a chameleon-like animal, brown in color, spotted in desert colors, with bumps like thorns covering its body. It feeds mainly on ants.
- Balby is an animal that looks like a mouse, but its ears are long and it has a rather long nose. It is a marsupial with a length of half a meter. It feeds on insects, seeds and fruits, and is active at night.
