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Great Victoria Desert

Desert

Australia's largest desert, covering about 348,750 square kilometers of Western Australia and South Australia between the Eastern Goldfields and the Gawler Ranges, with sandhills, grassland plains, gibber pavement and salt lakes under 200 to 250 millimeters of annual rainfall. Spinifex grasses, mulga acacia shrubs and hardy eucalypts support red kangaroos, emus, the great desert skink and burrowing specialists such as the southern marsupial mole and the water-holding frog, while dingoes and large monitor lizards such as the perentie and sand goanna sit atop the food web. About 31 percent of the desert lies within reserves and Indigenous protected areas, though residual plutonium-239 contamination remains from British nuclear weapons tests at Maralinga and Emu Field in the 1950s and 1960s. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Classification
Biogeographic Realm
Australasian 1
Area (sq km)
348,750 1
Great Victoria Desert
Filter Results2 entries
Connections

Demonstrates

Strong winds crossing the sparsely vegetated sand ridges and clay pans of this desert raise large dust storms, a recurring feature of the Australian arid interior.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Hosts

Dingo, Species
Source Wikidata: Dingo
Additional Source Great Victoria Desert (Wikipedia)Article text
Source Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology: Animal Diversity Web: Pseudantechinus macdonnellensis

In Biome

Desert, Biomes
Source World Wildlife Fund
In the Other Atlases

Found In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Sources
1. Great Victoria Desert (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Location and description section
    The Great Victoria is the largest desert in Australia, and consists of many small sandhills, grassland plains, areas with a closely packed surface of pebbles (called desert pavement or gibber plains), and salt lakes.
  • Biogeographic realm: australasian (derived from location stated in entity description)
  • Hosts: Dingo, Article text
    Predators of the desert include the dingo (as the desert is north of the Dingo Fence) and two large monitor lizards, the perentie (Varanus giganteus) and the sand goanna (Varanus gouldii).
View the Source
World Wildlife Fund
World Wildlife FundIn Biome: DesertView the Source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
  • Demonstrates: Wildfire
  • Demonstrates: Dust Storm
View the Source
Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology: Animal Diversity Web: Pseudantechinus macdonnellensis
Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of ZoologyHosts: Fat-tailed false antechinus, Geographic Range
Quote, Hosts: Fat-tailed false antechinus, Geographic Range
Their eastern range extends to the western edge of the Simpson Desert in South Australia, and westward they occupy much of the Gibson Desert, the northern fringes of the Great Victoria Desert, and the southern and eastern outskirts of the Gibson Desert in Western Australia.
View the Source

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