21.2 - SW Asia Climate and Vegetation

Climate and vegetation in SW Asia.

1. SW Asia:SW Asia:
Climate and VegetationClimate and Vegetation

2. The region is dry – most of it averages just 18 inches of
rain per year.
•Compare that with the 48 inches that Houston annually
receives. That’s almost an extra three and a half feet of
water.

4. Deserts
•Rub al-Khali
•“The Empty
Quarter” or
“The Place
Where No One
Comes Out”
•This is a
massive desert
in the
southeastern
Arabian
Peninsula and is
about the size
of Texas.

5. •Some of the sand dunes can reach 800 feet tall. The
Empire State Building is 1,250 feet tall.

9. •An-Nafud Desert
•North of Rub Al-Khali
•Syrian Desert
•North of An-Nafud
•Negev Desert
•Mainly located in Israel

10. Sometimes you’ll get an oasis.
•These are pockets of vegetation in the desert that are
usually fed by underground springs.

11. Salt Deserts
•Not all deserts are just a bunch of sand. Sometimes
they’re salt flats.
•Salt flats develop when winds evaporate the moisture in
the soil, but leave behind the salts that were in that
water.
•This is what happens in Iran when the mountains
surrounding the country keep out rain.
•Iran has two salt flat deserts: the Dasht-e Kavir in the
central area and the Dasht-e Lut in the east.
•They’re hot, uninhabited and nearly devoid of any flora
or fauna

12. Dasht-e
Kavir

13. Dasht-e Lut

15. This is the Bonneville Salt Flat in Utah.