Deserts of the World “O...-R...-”
for environmental, ecology, and geography educators & classrooms, travelers.

The Painted Desert is a “badland” terrain in Northern Arizona stretching from the Grand Canyon into the Petrified Forest National Park National Parks.

The area, home to Navajo and Hopi peoples for centuries, gained its current name from the early Spanish explorers, “el Desierto Pintado”, for the brightly colored stratified layers of minerals and organic matter landscape exposed by the wind and water erosion.

Patagonia, the largest desert in the Americas and the 5th largest in the world (260,000 sq mi / 673,000 km), is also known as the Patagonian Steppe. A cold winter desert in the rain shadow of the Andes Mountains, Patagonia is located primarily in Argentina, with small parts in Chile. The name seems to come from the European explorers (average height 5'1" tall) who experienced the natives average height of 5'11", as giants.

Rangipo Desert

Rangipo Desert, a barren desert-like environment in New Zealand, receives 1500 - 2500 mm of rainfall per year, but resembles a desert because of a poor soil quality and drying winds.