Greece hit again by high temperatures, Saharan dust
Thick clouds of dust blown in from the Sahara once again covered Greek skies Monday, especially Athens and Thessalonika, with temperatures rising as high as 31°C (88°F)......»»
A meteorite has been lost in the Sahara since 1916—here’s how we might find it
A tale of "sand dunes, a guy named Gaston, secret aeromagnetic surveys, and camel drivers." Enlarge / Chinguetti slice at the National Museum of Natural History. A larger meteorite reported in 1916 hasn't been spotted since. (cre.....»»
Sahara dust shrouds Senegal capital prompting air quality warning
The Senegalese capital is usually bathed in sunshine but for a fourth consecutive day on Friday the city on the Atlantic coast was shrouded in a pallid cloud......»»
The zaï technique: How farmers in the Sahel grow crops with little to no water
Hubert Reeves once wrote that "on the cosmic scale, liquid water is rarer than gold". And what is true for the universe is even truer in the Sahel, the name given to the vast, arid belt that skirts the Sahara and stretches across Africa from east to.....»»
The Sahara Desert used to be a green savannah: Research explains why
Algeria's Tassili N'Ajjer plateau is Africa's largest national park. Among its vast sandstone formations is perhaps the world's largest art museum. Over 15,000 etchings and paintings are exhibited there, some as much as 11,000 years old according to.....»»
How an ancient society in the Sahara Desert rose and fell with groundwater
With its low quantities of rain and soaring high temperatures, the Sahara Desert is often regarded as one of the most extreme and least habitable environments on Earth. While the Sahara was periodically much greener in the distant past, an ancient so.....»»
4.6-billion-year-old meteorite increases our understanding of the early solar system
An analysis of the approximately 4.6-billion-year-old meteorite Erg Chech 002, discovered in 2020 in the Erg Chech region of the Sahara Desert in Algeria, is presented in Nature Communications......»»
Using GPS, satellites and statistics to track and protect giraffes across a range of diverse African habitats
Nearly 6,000 years ago, our ancestors climbed arid rocky outcrops in what is now the Nigerian Sahara and carved spectacularly intricate, larger-than-life renditions of giraffes into the exposed sandstone. The remarkably detailed Dabous giraffe rock a.....»»
Sahara space rock 4.5 billion years old upends assumptions about the early solar system
In May 2020, some unusual rocks containing distinctive greenish crystals were found in the Erg Chech sand sea, a dune-filled region of the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria......»»
Sahara dust can enhance removal of methane, study finds
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explores the effects of Saharan dust clouds on atmospheric methane. Its findings have potentially far-reaching implications for understanding the global methane budget and reaso.....»»
Mystery of the desert: The lost cities of the Nigerien Sahara
A long trek across the desert of northeastern Niger brings the visitor to one of the most astonishing and rewarding sights in the Sahel: fortified villages of salt and clay perched on rocks with the Saharan sands laying siege below......»»
In dust and clouds over Africa, scientists find clues to how hurricanes form
When the dust that wafts off the Sahel and Sahara regions of Africa mixes with tropical clouds, it creates what's known as a rainy "disturbance" in the eastern Atlantic. These disturbances are hurricanes in their youngest form, and as they travel acr.....»»
NGC 253: Chandra determines what makes a galaxy"s wind blow
On Earth, wind can transport particles of dust and debris across the planet, with sand from the Sahara ending up in the Caribbean or volcanic ash from Iceland being deposited in Greenland. Wind can also have a big impact on the ecology and environmen.....»»
The Wild Plan to Export Sun From the Sahara to the UK
An ambitious cable project aims to power thousands of homes with renewable energy by 2030......»»
Plesiosaur fossils found in the Sahara suggest they weren"t just marine animals
Fossils of small plesiosaurs, long-necked marine reptiles from the age of dinosaurs, have been found in a 100-million year old river system that is now Morocco's Sahara Desert. This discovery suggests some species of plesiosaur, traditionally thought.....»»
Image: Tenoumer Crater, Mauritania
Deep within the Sahara Desert lies one of the best-preserved craters on Earth. On Asteroid Day, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the almost-perfectly circular Tenoumer Crater in Mauritania......»»
Bizarre meat-eating dinosaur found in classic fossil site in Egypt"s Sahara desert
An Egyptian-American team of researchers has announced the discovery of a new kind of large-bodied meat-eating dinosaur, or theropod, from a celebrated fossil site in Egypt's Sahara Desert. The fossil of a still-unnamed species provides the first kno.....»»
African dust crosses the Atlantic
A beautiful sunset over the Atlantic off the Florida coast, or an orangey glow in the Texas sky at dusk may be caused by dust from West Africa, according to researchers who are looking at the paths of particulate matter in the skies over the Sahara d.....»»
Tunisian eco-pioneers battle to save Sahara oasis life
A remote oasis in Tunisia's desert was exhausted by decades of wasteful water use for agriculture—but now pioneers around an eco-lodge are reviving the spot with innovative projects......»»
Sahara desert dust coats swathes of Spain
A mass of hot air from the Sahara desert dumped dust on large parts of Spain including Madrid on Tuesday, colouring the sky orange and coating cars and streets......»»