Solved cryptogram
A desert is defined by how little falls on it rather than by heat, so Antarctica is one.
Earth Science Facts, sourced to NASA.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 69 letters over 16 different ones, graded easy.
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What it means
The usual line is drawn at around twenty five centimeters of precipitation a year. That puts the Sahara and the interior of Antarctica in the same category, which sounds like a technicality and is not: both are shaped by the same shortage. Sand covers only a small fraction of the world's deserts. The rest is gravel, bare rock and salt flat, because without water there is little to break rock down into sand and nothing to hold it.
The claim comes from NASA.
- SourceNASA
- CollectionEarth Science Facts
- Difficultyeasy
- Length69 letters, 16 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- National Snow and Ice Data Centermedium, 70 letters
- National Snow and Ice Data Centerhard, 74 letters
- U.S. National Park Servicemedium, 77 letters
- U.S. National Park Servicemedium, 75 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
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