McLean’s Optical Illusions : The Desert
"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.
"What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well."
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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
"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