Deserts — Part 1: Hot
Hello, friends. Today will be the first of two desert posts and focused on the hot variety. You are probably aware that deserts can be hot or cold. Here’s a hot playlist for while you read.
If you can’t remember which spelling corresponds to the dry, arid area of land and not the usually sweet dish usually served at the end of a meal, I gotchu. The single s in desert is all alone, like you would be in a desert. A dessert has an extra s because the food was so good you want another one. Anyway, let’s get toasty.
A desert is a barren area of land where little precipitation occurs and consequently living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to the processes of denudation. About one third of the land surface of the world is arid or semi-arid… Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation that falls, by the temperature that prevails, by the causes of desertification or by their geographical location. — Wiki
The biggest hot desert on the planet is the Sahara (which means deserts in Arabic, so it’s the Deserts Desert). It’s about 3.6 million square miles, aka about 1 United States. It covers essentially all of northern Africa, spanning from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea and snuggling up on the Mediterranean. The average high in the Sahara is around 100 F and the highest recorded temperature I could find was 136 F. If the air isn’t hot enough for you, you can take a seat on the sand. The ground is much hotter — temperatures can reach up to 186 F. At night, in the areas further inland, it can drop to below freezing. It actually snowed in the Sahara less than 6 months ago, up to a meter in some places.
The Tree of Ténéré was formerly the most isolated tree on the planet, with no others for at least 250 miles. In 1973, it was uprooted after being struck by a drunk truck driver. The dead tree was moved to a museum and replaced with a metal sculpture of the tree. It stayed alive by sending its roots to the water table over 100 feet below the surface. I’m very sad some bricc drove into this tree, because it was truly beautiful and eerie at the same time.
Now, we will have to settle for the Tree of Life in Bahrain:
It is estimated that in 6 hours, earth’s deserts collectively receive more solar energy from the sun that all humans use in a year. By using 10% of the Sahara’s land as a solar farm, we could satisfy the current energy needs of the entire world. Desertec is hoping to do exactly that, starting with Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. They are investing $560 billion to setup huge solar and wind farms and run big cords to Europe under the Mediterranean.
Speaking of wind, it can cause some brutal dust storms. This should not be confused with a sandstorm, because sand is much larger and heavier than dust. Sandstorms are not as big or long-lived due to wind not being able to lift up the sand as easily. The finest of dust particles can rise as far as 3.7 miles into the sky with the help of strong winds and stay in flight for 3,700 miles. Larger dust particles can’t travel like this, but they still contribute to the terrifying plumes, which can cause complete darkness at ground level.
China is in the process of planting thousands of miles of trees and plants to try to stop dust storms (and the expansion of the Gobi). One storm in China in 2001 dumped an estimated 6.5 million tons along its path.
If there is enough wind to get rid of all of the dust and/or sand in a large chunk of desert, it can produce desert pavement. This stuff looks seriously man-made, but is completely natural.
The Aral Sea was once one of the four largest lakes on the planet. Now, it is almost gone.
Before you go crying Al Gore, you should know that this is more due to some briccs that decided to reroute the lake’s water source to other parts of the surrounding desert in the 40s to try to grow crops. This failed. A few decades later they tried to divert the rivers back to the lake and refill it, but it was too late. By 2007, the lake was split into 4 smaller lakes and was reduced to 10% of peak Aral Sea size. The previously bustling fishing industry was obviously crippled, leaving only a graveyard of rusty fishing boats. I couldn’t find a number, but there are a ton of pictures and there have to be hundreds of disintegrating boats out on the lake bed.
It could be worse, though. In the Atama desert in Chile, there are some places that have NEVER had any recorded rain.
I wanted the plants and animals that are able to survive in the desert to be really cool, but honestly I was a bit disappointed. The gist of it is that they conserve water by whatever means possible (apparently camel urine has the consistency of syrup) and stay cool by being nocturnal or staying in the shade. The only cool thing I found was that some animals can be dormant for as long as it is dry, then wake up and mate asap when it rains. The fertilized eggs then hatch very fast or stay dormant until it rains again. The other things to know is that you get stuck in the desert, you should find prickly pear to eat, rather than normal cactus, as normal cactus can get you sick. Good luck!
