Thursday, October 11, 2012

Weathering Formation of the Sahara Desert



The Sahara desert does not have hardly any atmosphere to guard it against radiant energy due to its location. Due to lack of water in the ground and little vapor in the air this is the reason why the desert gets really hot during daytime and actually really cold at night. Dry ground can’t contain as much heat as wet ground so no moisture could cause serious heat and cold for dry lands with the lack of water. Weathering is a major impact of the Sahara Desert and is a great reason how the landforms are created. To be specific, Erosion sculpts the landscapes. The main forms of weathering in the Sahara are exfoliation in which is due to expansion and contraction of rocks and rock particles, abrasion in which is mainly through the wind moving sand particles over each other and finally water erosion in which causes  flash flooding in areas can cause the movement and erosion of sand, rocks and stones.




The only river that flows through The Sahara Desert is the Nile River the stretches from Central America to the Mediterranean Sea. There is also Lake Chad in which makes up a small part of the Sahara desert.

Salt lake, Chad 
 http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/175479/enlarge

 
<http://bostonglobe.longjaunt.com/blog/2008/04/05/the-world-below/>



There are more folding landforms when it comes to sand dunes of the Sahara desert and more landforms of joints and faulting of rock forms when it comes to Sahara’s mountains and plateaus.



<http://www.x2pn.com/2012/08/sahara-the-largest-hot-desert/>

El Ghessour, Tassili du Hoggar, Sahara Desert, Algeria Stock Photo - Royalty-Free, Artist: Frank Krahmer, Code: 600-03502705
<http://www.masterfile.com/stock-photography/image/600-03502705/El-Ghessour-Tassili-du-Hoggar-Sahara-Desert-Algeria>



This is a form of the Sahara desert that shows 3 different landforms in which actually make up the Sahara Desert by whole in just one spot. Mountains are the highest peak above. There is a sand dune right below the side of the mountain. At the the bottom surface is rock debris mixed with sand. This is called Regs. Insolation Weathering helped create the Reg landscape.

 Sahara photos