Geography37 Trivia Questions15 Easy · 18 Medium · 4 Hard

Deserts Trivia: 37 Sailing Stones, Singing Dunes & Arid Wonders

Forget picturing endless empty sand—explore 37 wild stories behind ice-pushed sailing boulders, booming sand dunes, meteorite glass scarabs, and the planet's most extreme deserts.

Which frozen continent is actually the largest desert on planet Earth?

Question 1 of 37Easy

1.Which frozen continent is actually the largest desert on planet Earth?

How does the bone-dry Sahara Desert keep South America's Amazon rainforest lush?

Question 2 of 37Medium

2.How does the bone-dry Sahara Desert keep South America's Amazon rainforest lush?

How do villages in Chile's rainless Atacama Desert harvest drinking water?

Question 3 of 37Easy

3.How do villages in Chile's rainless Atacama Desert harvest drinking water?

What is actually stored inside a desert camel's towering back hump?

Question 4 of 37Easy

4.What is actually stored inside a desert camel's towering back hump?

What moves 700-pound boulders across Death Valley's flat Racetrack Playa floor?

Question 5 of 37Medium

5.What moves 700-pound boulders across Death Valley's flat Racetrack Playa floor?

Where on Earth has zero rain fallen for nearly two million years?

Question 6 of 37Medium

6.Where on Earth has zero rain fallen for nearly two million years?

How many leaves does the Namib Desert's 2,000-year-old Welwitschia plant ever grow?

Question 7 of 37Medium

7.How many leaves does the Namib Desert's 2,000-year-old Welwitschia plant ever grow?

What causes thirty-five deserts worldwide to boom like giant bass cellos?

Question 8 of 37Medium

8.What causes thirty-five deserts worldwide to boom like giant bass cellos?

What creates the mysterious polka-dot 'fairy circles' across Namibia's desert grasslands?

Question 9 of 37Hard

9.What creates the mysterious polka-dot 'fairy circles' across Namibia's desert grasslands?

What forged the canary-yellow desert glass carved into King Tutankhamun's breastplate scarab?

Question 10 of 37Medium

10.What forged the canary-yellow desert glass carved into King Tutankhamun's breastplate scarab?

How long can a North American desert kangaroo rat live without drinking water?

Question 11 of 37Easy

11.How long can a North American desert kangaroo rat live without drinking water?

What killed the Sahara's 'Tree of Ténéré,' the world's loneliest tree?

Question 12 of 37Easy

12.What killed the Sahara's 'Tree of Ténéré,' the world's loneliest tree?

Where sits the one-square-mile 'Carcross Desert,' often called the world's smallest desert?

Question 13 of 37Medium

13.Where sits the one-square-mile 'Carcross Desert,' often called the world's smallest desert?

How old is an Arizona saguaro cactus before sprouting its first side arm?

Question 14 of 37Easy

14.How old is an Arizona saguaro cactus before sprouting its first side arm?

What do 8,000-year-old rock paintings in the Sahara's 'Cave of Swimmers' prove?

Question 15 of 37Easy

15.What do 8,000-year-old rock paintings in the Sahara's 'Cave of Swimmers' prove?

Why do thousands of crystal-clear turquoise swimming lagoons fill Brazil's Lençóis Maranhenses dunes?

Question 16 of 37Medium

16.Why do thousands of crystal-clear turquoise swimming lagoons fill Brazil's Lençóis Maranhenses dunes?

How does Australia's desert thorny devil lizard drink morning dew without bending down?

Question 17 of 37Medium

17.How does Australia's desert thorny devil lizard drink morning dew without bending down?

Why can you walk barefoot at noon across New Mexico's White Sands dunes?

Question 18 of 37Easy

18.Why can you walk barefoot at noon across New Mexico's White Sands dunes?

$Roughly what fraction of the Sahara Desert is actually covered in sand dunes?$

Question 19 of 37Easy

19.Roughly what fraction of the Sahara Desert is actually covered in sand dunes?

How do desert fairy shrimp suddenly appear inside temporary Mojave rainwater puddles?

Question 20 of 37Medium

20.How do desert fairy shrimp suddenly appear inside temporary Mojave rainwater puddles?

What sat 15 miles from the nearest highway in California's Mojave Desert until 2000?

Question 21 of 37Medium

21.What sat 15 miles from the nearest highway in California's Mojave Desert until 2000?

Which peninsula holds the 'Empty Quarter,' Earth's largest continuous sea of sand?

Question 22 of 37Easy

22.Which peninsula holds the 'Empty Quarter,' Earth's largest continuous sea of sand?

What wakes Arizona's Couch's spadefoot toad from ten months buried underground?

Question 23 of 37Medium

23.What wakes Arizona's Couch's spadefoot toad from ten months buried underground?

Which way do the two pointed horns of a crescent 'barchan' sand dune point?

Question 24 of 37Hard

24.Which way do the two pointed horns of a crescent 'barchan' sand dune point?

Besides hearing underground beetles, how do a fennec fox's six-inch ears help?

Question 25 of 37Easy

25.Besides hearing underground beetles, how do a fennec fox's six-inch ears help?

Why did Australians build a 3,488-mile fence across their interior deserts?

Question 26 of 37Medium

26.Why did Australians build a 3,488-mile fence across their interior deserts?

What actually formed the 25-mile concentric 'Eye of the Sahara' in Mauritania?

Question 27 of 37Medium

27.What actually formed the 25-mile concentric 'Eye of the Sahara' in Mauritania?

How do residents of Australia's scorching opal-mining town Coober Pedy beat 120°F heat?

Question 28 of 37Easy

28.How do residents of Australia's scorching opal-mining town Coober Pedy beat 120°F heat?

Why does a thirty-six-foot concrete hand reach out of Chile's Atacama Desert?

Question 29 of 37Easy

29.Why does a thirty-six-foot concrete hand reach out of Chile's Atacama Desert?

What forms the petaled stone 'desert roses' dug out of Saharan sand?

Question 30 of 37Medium

30.What forms the petaled stone 'desert roses' dug out of Saharan sand?

Why is Mongolia's cold Gobi Desert a paradise for dinosaur fossil hunters?

Question 31 of 37Medium

31.Why is Mongolia's cold Gobi Desert a paradise for dinosaur fossil hunters?

Why isn't the Mojave Desert's famous Joshua tree technically a tree?

Question 32 of 37Easy

32.Why isn't the Mojave Desert's famous Joshua tree technically a tree?

What preserved 4,000-year-old tartan-wearing mummies with eyelashes intact in China's Taklamakan Desert?

Question 33 of 37Medium

33.What preserved 4,000-year-old tartan-wearing mummies with eyelashes intact in China's Taklamakan Desert?

Which Algerian Sahara town has seen snow blanket its orange dunes five times?

Question 34 of 37Medium

34.Which Algerian Sahara town has seen snow blanket its orange dunes five times?

Where did NASA satellites record Earth's hottest land surface temperature of 177.4°F?

Question 35 of 37Hard

35.Where did NASA satellites record Earth's hottest land surface temperature of 177.4°F?

What battery metal lies dissolved beneath the salt crusts of South American deserts?

Question 36 of 37Easy

36.What battery metal lies dissolved beneath the salt crusts of South American deserts?

What prehistoric marine life still thrives inside Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert spring pools?

Question 37 of 37Hard

37.What prehistoric marine life still thrives inside Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert spring pools?