The Lut Desert, widely referred to as Dasht-e Lut (, "Emptiness Plain"), is a salt

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

located in the provinces of

Kerman Kerman (; ) is a city in the Central District (Kerman County), Central District of Kerman County, Kerman province, Kerman province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. History Kerman was founded as a def ...

and Sistan-Baluchestan,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. It is the world's 33rd-largest desert, and was included in

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

on July 17, 2016. TThe name is derived from ''Lut'' which means 'bare, empty' in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and ''dasht'' which means 'plain' in

. The surface of its sand has been measured at temperatures as high as 70.7 °C (159.3 °F), the highest-known land surface temperature.

Description

Iran is climatically part of the Afro-Asian belt of deserts, which stretches from

Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...

all the way to

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

. Iran's geography consists of a

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. ...

surrounded by mountains and divided into

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

s. Dasht-e Lut is one of the largest of these drainage basins, long and wide, The area of the desert is about , the largest in Iran after

Dasht-e Kavir Dasht-e Kavir ( in classical Persian, from ''khwar'' (low), and ''dasht'' (plain, flatland)) or the Kavir Desert, also known as Kavir-e Namak or the Great Salt Desert, is a large desert lying in the middle of the Iranian Plateau. It is about ...

. During the spring wet season, water briefly flows down from the Kerman mountains, but it soon dries up, leaving behind only rocks, sand, and salt. The eastern part of Dasht-e Lut is a low plateau covered with salt flats with lowest elevations around 110 m above sea level (30.398609 N, 58.493041 E). In contrast, the center has been sculpted by the wind into a series of parallel ridges and furrows, extending over and reaching in height. This area is also riddled with

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ...

s and

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...

s. The southeast is a vast expanse of sand, like a Saharan

erg The erg is a unit of energy equal to 10−7joules (100Nano-, nJ). It is not an SI unit, instead originating from the centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS). Its name is derived from (), a Greek language, Greek word meaning 'work' or ' ...

, with

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s high, among the tallest in the world. Lut Desert Yardangs by Hadi Karimi

Geology

According to one study, more than half of the desert's surface is covered by

volcanic rock Volcanic rocks (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) are rocks formed from lava erupted from a volcano. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic rock is artificial, and in nature volcanic rocks grade into hypabyssal and me ...

Evaporite An evaporite () is a water- soluble sedimentary mineral deposit that results from concentration and crystallization by evaporation from an aqueous solution. There are two types of evaporite deposits: marine, which can also be described as oce ...

s can be observed during hot periods.

Archaeology

Around 2500 BC, a flourishing civilization existed in this area. The ancient city of

Shahdad Shahdad () is a city in, and the capital of, Shahdad District of Kerman County, Kerman province, Iran. Demographics Population At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 4,097 in 1,010 households. The following ce ...

was located on the western edge of the Lut desert. And on the eastern side, there was a large, 200 ha (490

acres The acre ( ) is a unit of land area used in the British imperial and the United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, ...

), ancient city today called

Shahr-e Sukhteh Shahr-e Sukhteh (, meaning "Burnt City"), c. 3550–2300 BC,Ascalone, E., and P. F. Fabbri, (2022)"Demographic considerations regarding the settlement and necropolis of Shahr i Sokhta" in: E. Ascalone and S.M.S. Sajjadi (eds.), Excavations and R ...

or Burnt City, on the former, now dry,

Helmand River The Helmand river (Pashto/Dari: ; Ancient Greek: Ἐτύμανδρος, ''Etýmandros''; Latin: '), also spelled Helmend, or Helmund, Hirmand, is the longest river in Afghanistan and the primary watershed for the endorheic Sistan Basin. It o ...

. The Lut area is an important region for Iranian archaeology. Recently, an extensive

archaeological survey In archaeology, survey or field survey is a type of field research by which archaeologists (often Landscape archaeology, landscape archaeologists) search for archaeological sites and collect information about the location, distribution and organi ...

was conducted on the eastern flank of Kerman range and close to the western fringes of Lut Desert. As a result, eighty-seven ancient sites dating from the fifth millennium BC to the late Islamic era were identified. Twenty-three of these sites are assigned to the

Chalcolithic The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...

period and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

Climate

The hottest land surface on Earth recorded by the

Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a satellite-based sensor used for earth and climate measurements. There are two MODIS sensors in Geocentric orbit, Earth orbit: one on board the Terra (satellite), Terra (Earth ...

installed on

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's Aqua satellite from 2003 to 2010 was in Dasht-e Lut, with land surface temperatures reaching in 2005, although the air temperature at that time could have be anywhere from . The precision of these measurements was between 0.5 K and 1 K. In 2019, authors reported a land surface temperature of , based on newer MODIS data. As of 2020, there are no permanent weather stations in Dasht-e Lut, which makes the exact climate uncertain. Based on neighboring stations, Dasht-e Lut likely receives less than of precipitation a year. In comparison, the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...

receives an average of of precipitation per year, with some areas receiving as little as a year.

References

External links

* "Hottest Place on Earth" spoken article
NASA image and info

NASA survey on temperatures around the globe
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dasht-E Lut Deserts of Iran Ergs Physiographic sections Articles containing video clips World Heritage Sites in Iran de:Wüsten Afghanistans und des Iran#Lut