Under The Desert What's The Matter?
When you talk about deserts, you might immediately picture a vast dry hot, and sandy region. But have you ever thought, about what exactly is under the desert?
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| Gobi desert (Photo: Jose L Vilchez/Shutterstock) |
Curious? Certainly... This could be due to childhood questions that have not been answered until now, so the curiosity arises to know what lies under the desert.
Under The Desert
Before that, let's first discuss where the sand in the desert comes from.
Citing Science ABC, drastic temperature changes between day and night can put pressure on rocks in an area so that they can break and crack.
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Then, combined with dry, strong winds that easily cause erosion, will eventually help the formation of sand over thousands of years.
But it turns out that not all deserts consist of sand. There are ergs (deserts), serrirs (gravel deserts), and hammada (stone deserts) which are each shaped by unique erosion and climate patterns.
Some desert areas may have dune features, but other desert areas may be barren.
After understanding where the sand comes from, you can probably already guess what lies behind the desert.
What lies beneath the desert is fractured bedrock and clay from a dry ecosystem.
In addition, deserts are also not necessarily flat, so there are hills and rock formations that are eroded by weather to become flat land below or formed into outcrops due to erosion forces.
Deserts in The Past
You may also be curious about what the desert was like in the past. Some experts conduct studies to uncover it, for example, in the Sahara desert.
Launching IFL Science, the Sahara desert in the past was not as dry as it is now. Recent studies suggest the region was once green roughly 21,000 years ago.
Another study also found that about 250,000 years ago, the Nile flooded the Sahara desert, covering an area of more than 108,800 square kilometers.
Isn't it interesting? Hopefully, the question of "under the desert is what?", can be answered and the information useful.