By the sea, you can learn the marine world. In the mountains, we discover the peaks or the abymes or the white spaces.

And for the desert, many words come to mind, filled with evocations :

Oued, canyon, chaaba, camel, fennec, sandstorm, palm tree, oasis, dune, touareg, nomad, adventure, cactus, beetle, sand, date palm, tents, caravan, bivouac, erg, reg, ksar, mirage, dromedary , Sahara, Atacama, Gobi…. And even more

"Desertology", a neologism to appropriate? Perhaps, from the following quote from an ethnologist:

From pure and simple topography in an unknown country to the study of the population,

                                                   passing by the flora and fauna,

                                                This is what we can call desertology,

                                      the study of phenomena specific to these particular spaces