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McLean’s Optical Illusions : The Desert

 "Optical illusion disc which is spun displaying the illusion of motion of a ball with a wedge-shaped piece missing passing through a hoop and of a monkey swinging on branches of a tree and a zebra jumping through an opening between two trees in a circle at the outer edge of the disc." 

 

Finding Fossils in the Great Divide Basin

"The image above is a land cover map of Wyoming’s Great Divide Basin developed by the neural network. Barren lands, scrublands, and forests appear in shades of beige and green. Potential fossil localities are pink, and likely fossil localities are red. Fossil localities often occur along steep slopes where erosion regularly uncovers new fossils."

October 17 is National Fossil Day, celebrating paleontologists, the ancient life forms they seek, and fossil-rich national parks

 

A Stunning Sunset In the Gobi Desert

Comprising over 500,000 square miles, the Gobi Desert’s sunsets are simply magical.

 

The Mystical Desert

"What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well."

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

 

Desert "Trees"

Photograph by Adrianafranco Fran

"This image has a wonderful texture that is almost surreal. At first glance, it's hard to even distinguish what the subject of this photo is—is it snow? Some kind of microscopic leaf or moss? It's just downright stunning as a desert aerial."—Janna Dotschkal, assistant photo editor

 

The Sahara Forest Project

"Can you imagine being able to produce enough water in the Sahara to grow crops there? Can you imagine harnessing sufficient quantities of solar power to supply electricity to cities in Africa and cities in Europe? Can you imagine producing a sustainable bio-fuel that doesn't impact on world food supplies? Charlie Paton, Michael Pawlyn and Bill Watts can and what's more they can imagine all these happening in the same place at the same time."
via treehugger.com

 

Waterproof Sand Could Green the Deserts

"Global freshwater use tripled during the second half of the twentieth century as population more than doubled and as technological advances let farmers and other water users pump groundwater from greater depths and harness river water with more and larger dams. As global demand soars, pressures on the world’s water resources are straining aquatic systems worldwide. Rivers are running dry, lakes are disappearing, and water tables are dropping. Nearly 70 percent of global water withdrawals from rivers, lakes, and aquifers are used for irrigation, while industry and households account for 20 and 10 percent, respectively" World's Water Resources Face Mounting Pressure 

"When regular desert sand lies beneath, water bleeds endlessly downward leaving roots dry until the next watering.

With new hydrophobic sand in place, traditional watering of desert plants five or six times a day can be reduced to one watering, saving 75 per cent more water, a precious resource that is dwindling...

One of the advantages of the hydrophobic sand... is that while it allows aerobic activity to move upward from the soil, it prevents underground desert salinity deposits from passing through to plant roots above; salt is corrosive and kills plants." 

via nextbigfuture.com

The Sand Sea Known as Idhan Murzuq

"In southwestern Libya, near the borders of Algeria and Niger, lies a sand sea known as Idhan Murzuq (also Sahra Marzuq) that rarely receives water from either sky or land. The extreme desert’s complex dunes are shaped by dry winds. But extending from the northeast quarter, a corridor of sand lines what used to be a river channel: Wadi Barjuj. 
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on December 7, 2011. Sand dunes stand out especially in the northwestern part of Idhan Murzuq, though the entire sand sea contrasts with its rockier surroundings."
via earthobservatory.nasa.gov

 

SunGlacier : An Ice Producing Perpertuum Mobile

"Inspired by a leaf, covered with solar panels, we attrack moisture from the air and cool it into ice. Indeed: creating a glacier in a hot and dry desert. Why a is it called a glacier? Because the process doesn't stop. An ice producing Perpertuum Mobile. This week we start with testing the systems at Cofely, but the pre-test showed already good results."
via sunglacier.blogspot.com

 

Sand Dunes, Junggar Basin, Northwestern China

"This photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station highlights a sand dune field within the Burqin-Haba River-Jimunai Desert near the borders of China, Mongolia, Russia, and Kazakhstan. The dune field (approximately 32 kilometers or 20 miles long) is located immediately west-northwest of the city of Burqin (not shown), and is part of the Junggar Basin, a region of active petroleum production in northwestern China. The Irtysh River—with associated wetlands and riparian vegetation (appearing grey-green in the image) —flows from its headwaters in the Altay Mountains towards Siberia (right to left across the image)."
via earthobservatory.nasa.gov