In contrast to the glacial deserts of Antarctica as well as the Arctic, the Desert Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert, and also the third-largest barren zone. It covers 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million square kilometres) that is, approximately the area that is the USA (consisting of Alaska as well as Hawaii), as well as nearly three-quarters of the African continent The Desert Sahara is one of the aridest areas in the world. Earth. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the term “wilderness” (sahra) from Arabic is the reason why the deserted tract is named.
What is the Desert Sahara Geography?
The Atlantic Ocean borders the desert Sahara to the west. It borders the Red Sea to the east. The Mediterranean Sea borders it on its north side, and it is the Sahel Savannah borders it on the south. It’s a massive desert covering 10 countries: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, and Tunisia. It is also Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, which Morocco annexed by the Moroccans in 1975. The Indigenous Saharawi people dispute Moroccan sovereign rights over the region (BBC 2021). While there are many reasons why the Desert Sahara is home to numerous kinds of land features it’s most famous for its dunes. They often appear in movies. As stated by the Encyclopedia Britannica, the dunes are nearly 600 feet (183 meters) high and makeup about 25% of the whole desert. Additional topographical features in the Sahara include salt flats, mountains, plateaus, plains covered in sand and gravel, basins, and depressions. Qattara Depression in northwest Egypt marks its lowest point, at 436 feet below sea level – its height is an extinct volcano called Emi Koussi which rises 11204 feet (3 meters). Even though there isn’t much water in the entire region, the Desert Sahara has two permanent rivers—the Nile and the Nige, at least 20 seasonal lakes, and massive aquifers that serve as the main water sources for more than 90 significant desert oases. Water management authorities once believed that the aquifers in the Desert Sahara were “fossil aquifers,” or water reserves that formed in the distant past under different geological and climatic conditions. They were also afraid that overuse would cause these resources to run out soon. According to an article published in Geophysical Research Letters in 2013, rainfall, as well as rains, continued to provide the underground aquifers by replenishing freshwater sources.
Which Kinds of Plants and Animals Are Kept Here?
Desert Sahara is home to an astonishing range of plant and animal species despite its harsh, dry environment. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that the Desert Sahara is home to roughly 500 plant species, 70 mammalian species, 90 avian species, and 100 reptilian species, as well as numerous spiders, scorpions, and other small arthropod species. Camels have their roots in North America but remain beloved creatures of the Sahara desert. A 2015 research journal article published by the Research Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Management states that their predecessors first appeared approximately 45 million years ago. Large mammals eventually made the journey across the Bering Isthmus between three million and five million years ago in search of Africa. As reported by the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, camels were domesticated approximately 3,000 years ago in the southeast Arabian Peninsula for transportation in desert environments. San Diego Zoo claims these “ships of the desert,” are perfectly suited to their high temperatures in the Desert Sahara region climate. A camel’s back humps store fat, which it can use for intermissions as a source of energy and liquids. Camels can survive for several months without food and for over a week without water because of how well they store energy.
Other Sahara Desert Mammal Residents
Gazelles, addaxes (a type of antelope), cheetahs, caracals, desert foxes, and wild dogs are among the many mammals living in Desert Sahara habitats. Lizards, snakes, and (in places where water exists) even crocodiles call this desert home! Additionally, there exists a great diversity of reptile species like lizards snakes crocodiles. According to the Sahara Conservation Fund, the Desert Sahara hosts numerous arthropod species. This includes “deathstalker” scorpions, dung beetles, and scarab beetles, as well as numerous types of ants. The BBC reports that plant species in the Desert Sahara have evolved in response to their harsh environment by adapting with deep roots that reach underground in search of hidden water sources and leaves with spines to reduce moisture loss. Whereas some parts of a desert lack any form of vegetation whatsoever, oasis regions like Nile Valley host an array of plants such as date palms and olive trees, as well as various shrubs and grasses that thrive there. Meanwhile, the Desert Sahara remains uninhabitable by any form of life at present. But every 20,000 years, it alternates between a harsh desert and another extreme, a verdant oasis — according to a 2019 study published in the journal Science Advances. The authors of the study looked at marine sediments that included Saharan dust deposits from the previous 240,000 years. They discovered that the subtle variations in Earth’s axis tilt, which also influence monsoon activity, correlated with the cycle between a dry and a green Sahara. The Northern Hemisphere received more sunlight when Earth’s axis tilted it just one degree closer to the sun, roughly 24.5 degrees as opposed to today’s 23.5 degrees, which increased the monsoon rains and allowed the Desert Sahara to grow lush and green. Prehistoric rock paintings, cave paintings, and other archaeological artifacts have been found by archaeologists, providing insight into the way of life in the formerly green Sahara. Pottery fragments indicate that herders gathered plants and kept cattle in what is now an arid desert some 7,000 years ago. But the Sahara’s climate has been largely stable and dry for the last 2,000 years or so. The northeastern winds direct warm winds towards the equator, which remove moisture from the air over the desert. Extremely high winds can result in strong dust storms that completely block out visibility in the surrounding area. Trade winds carry Desert Sahara dust to the other side of the world.
Researchers Reports
Researchers found that the Desert Sahara experiences zero to roughly 3 inches (7.6 centimetres) of precipitation annually, which they published in the American Meteorological Society journal in 2014. At higher altitudes, snowfall occurs occasionally. Based on the University of California Museum of Palaeontology Berkeley (UCMP), the temperatures throughout the year in deserts with dry, arid climates such as Sahara Sahara vary from 60 to °F (20–25 degrees Celsius) and peak at 120°F (49 degrees Celsius) in the summer before dropping to 0 °F of minus 18 °C) during the night. The study, released by The Journal of Climate, estimates that the Desert Sahara has expanded by more than 10% since 1920. Another study from 2020 that was released in the journal Scientific Reports predicts that the desert is likely to increase at the same rate up to 2050. The Sahara desert is growing. The Sahara desert is getting larger but shrinking more slowly over the years as a result of natural climate cycles as well as human-caused climate changes However, every desert, including the Sahara, is expanding during dry times and shrinking during the rainy season. The authors of the 2017 study concluded that human-caused climate change is at least one-third responsible for the expansion of the desert. The idea of constructing huge solar and wind farms within the Desert Sahara is one way to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. In a study from 2018, which was presented in Science, The farms could generate clean energy, reduce the greenhouse gas emissions being released into the atmosphere, and even encourage greater precipitation within the region. According to simulations, the average amount of precipitation over wind farms would double, increasing vegetation by an estimated 20%. The outcomes of the solar farm simulations were comparable. The research that was released within the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History provides insight into the conditions in the Sahara many millions of years ago in the Cretaceous period. It was during the Cretaceous. Discover more about the Air Mountains located in central Niger as one of its notable landscape features today with this US Geological Survey case study. In an episode of the BBC One documentary “Africa,” join Sir David Attenborough as he explores the Desert Sahara and discovers the remarkable adaptations that allow animals to withstand the harsh conditions of the desert.
