Quick & curious · Nature

Earth's largest desert isn't the one you think.

Bare, reddish-brown rocky valleys without snow, mountains behind: Antarctica's Dry Valleys
Photo: U.S. Department of State from United States · Public domain · Original

14.2mn km²is the size of Earth's largest desert

Your guess

Which is the largest desert on Earth?

More about it

A desert is an area where little precipitation falls. On Antarctica's central plateau it's about 50 millimetres a year. In its Dry Valleys it almost never snows.

Sources

Every statement in this discovery is backed by one of these sources and was checked before publication.

  1. Wikipedia: Desert (accessed 2026-10-07)
  2. Wikipedia: Antarctica (accessed 2026-10-07)