Shakespeare's desert of Bohemia had no sand, only an absence of people
Desert once meant an abandoned place, not a dry one. Before the twentieth century English speakers used it for any empty land, which is why a desert island needs no dunes. Today the word describes low rainfall, a condition covering about a third of Earth's land, including the frozen polar wastes.
The English word and its Romance cousins, such as French desert and Spanish desierto, come from church Latin desertum, from a verb meaning to abandon. The link between dryness and sparse population varies across cultures, eras and technology, so the term can mislead. Phrases like the Great American Desert, or Shakespeare's deserts of Bohemia in The Winter's Tale, emphasised emptiness rather than sand.
Deserts are sculpted by extremes. Big swings between daytime heat and night cold stress rocks until they crack, and rare cloudbursts on hot stone can shatter it and trigger flash floods. Wind then carries off sand and dust, sometimes as sandstorms, blasting and smoothing whatever it hits and sorting grains into flat sheets or towering dunes. Where fine material has blown away entirely, a mosaic of smooth stones called desert pavement can form. Evaporating temporary lakes leave salt pans, and springs fed by aquifers create oases.
Life adapts hard. Desert plants tend to be wiry, with small or absent leaves, waterproof coatings and spines against grazers. Some annuals sprout, flower and die within weeks of rain, while perennials send deep roots after groundwater. Many animals are nocturnal, hide underground by day, get most of their water from food and concentrate their urine. Others stay dormant for long stretches, then breed fast when rare rain arrives.
Humans have long struggled at desert edges. Nomads follow grazing, and oases allow settlement, but farming semi-arid land speeds soil erosion and feeds desertification. Irrigation can transform barren ground, as imported water did in California's Imperial Valley. Caravans of camels crossed the Sahara carrying salt, gold and ivory, and enslaved people were forced north along the same routes. Deserts now also host mining, and their unbroken sunshine offers great potential for solar power.
Source: Desert
