Geomorphology of aeolian dunes in the western Sahara Desert

Geomorphology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 392 ◽  
pp. 107916 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zihao Hu ◽  
Xin Gao ◽  
Jiaqiang Lei ◽  
Na Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Aeolian Dunes

scholarly journals Cart-ruts in Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain) volcanoes tops point to Equinoxes, Summer and Winter Solstices

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (13) ◽  
pp. 123-138
Author(s):  
Antonio Arnaiz-Villena ◽  
Marcial Medina ◽  
Valentín Ruiz-del-Valle ◽  
Adrian Lopez-Nares ◽  
Julian Rodriguez-Rodriguez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Canary Islands ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Azores Archipelago ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Probability Methods ◽  
European Investment

Cart-ruts have been observed in Mediterranean Basin, Eurasia and Africa. They are rock carved stripes and channels which unexpectedly converge and/or bend, not being useful for transportation use because constant parallelism is not kept. Cart-ruts came first to scholars attention in Malta and Gozo Islands where they are abundant and dated at Bronze or Temple Age of this Archipelago. A big conjoint European investment for Cart-ruts study only got a detailed inventory in several Eurasian and African countries. Age and use of Cart-ruts remains non-discovered: it is admitted that different ages and uses may not be the same for different or even same areas. Azores Archipelago Cart-ruts were left out of this study and we have recently described them at Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain) volcanoes tops and slopes and suggested that they could have been useful for space and time measurements. In the present study, Lanzarote is studied and Mt. Mina and Mt. Guardilama mountains Cart-ruts azimuths points to Summer and Winter Solstices sunrises respectively as measured from Quesera/”Cheeseboard” of Zonzamas, which is a prehistoric Guanche lunisolar calendar. Mt. Tenezara Cart-ruts azimuth is pointing towards Equinoxes sunrises, as observed from Zonzamas prehistoric calendar. Thus, a use for measure time and space could be a function for some Lanzarote Cart-ruts. We explain these findings in a prehistoric Guanche aborigine culture context probably common to Atlantic megalithic Bronze Age and to all Canary Islands having prehistoric inter-navigation, because all have similar rock Iberian-Guanche inscriptions and other common cultural traits. Sahara Desert abandoning by people also influenced Mediterranean and Atlantic culture. Probability that 3 out of 7 studied volcano Cart-ruts point to Solstices and Equinoxes by chance is close to zero as calculated by factorial probability methods. Keywords: Latin, Scripts, Canary Islands, Iberian, Guanche, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Quesera-Cheeseboard, Pyramids, Berber, Africa, Punic, Roman, Western Sahara, Tunisia, Canaria, Calendar, Etruscan, Basque, Cart-ruts, Usko-Mediterranean, Solstice, Equinox, Zonzamas, HLA, Genetics, Sahara. Atchano, Malta

A case study for structural and stratigraphical enhancement in the western Sahara desert

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria S. Donati ◽  
Pedro Munoz ◽  
Ali Omar BenGheit ◽  
Lamin Abushaala ◽  
Francisco Ortigosa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Western Sahara

Coralliaires, brachiopodes et crinoides mesodevoniens du Sahara mauritanien et occidental

1940 ◽  
Vol S5-X (7-9) ◽  
pp. 187-200
Author(s):  
Jean Cottreau
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Middle Devonian ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
French West Africa ◽  
Western Sahara

Abstract Describes corals, brachiopods, and crinoids from middle Devonian localities of the Sahara desert in Mauritania, French West Africa, and the western Sahara in French Sudan (French West Africa) and Algeria.

Replenishing Milk Sons

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-27
Author(s):  
Konstantina Isidoros
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Nomadic Pastoralism ◽  
Western Sahara

Abstract Since the decolonisation period, the Sahrāwī in the western Sahara Desert, North Africa have experienced very specific sociopolitical transformations relating to their millennia-old specialisation in nomadic pastoralism. This article examines the effects of such transformations on particular forms of making kin out of others – milk kinship. Various political circumstances have obliged the Sahrāwī to restructure their customary principles of organisation, possibly diminishing these practices. I question the effects of the loss of milk kin – particularly of milk sons – and the strains on customary matrilocal relations in the survival pressure on kinship relying solely upon ‘blood’ sons to replace these ‘missing men’.

Modelling an exceptional desert dust transport toward Portugal on February 2017

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria João Costa ◽  
Flavio Couto ◽  
Eduardo Cardoso ◽  
Rui Salgado ◽  
Juan Luis Guerrero-Rascado
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Atmospheric Circulation ◽  
Dust Emission ◽  
Horizontal Resolution ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Dust Transport ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Orographic Effects ◽  
Desert Dust ◽  
The North

<p>The terrain surrounding the Sahara desert is formed by some mountains ranges, as the Atlas mountain system in the northern edge of the desert and the Hoggar Mountains in Southern Algeria. Such orography, jointly with atmospheric circulation, plays an important role in the mobilization and transport of desert dust over medium and large distances. This study explores the interaction between complex terrain and atmospheric circulation in order to better understand an exceptional desert dust outbreak affecting Portugal in February 2017. The Meso-NH model is able to represent the atmospheric motions in different scales, and has been implemented with a rather complete parametrization package of physical processes in the atmosphere. The capability of the model to simulate dust emission is also explored. The on-line dust emission parametrization type is taken from the distribution of emitted dust of SURFEX with no need to use chemistry to activate dusts. A set of two simulations was performed for the period between 16 February at 0000 UTC to 24 February 1200 UTC, with the Meso-NH model configured in a single domain at 10 km horizontal resolution and 300x360 grid points. The experiments were defined as a) control experiment (CTRL), and b) dust experiment (DUST). From the large domain simulations, it was possible to assess the source of dust and its mobilization over Western Sahara desert, namely over the Northern part of Mauritania and Mali and Eastern part of Algeria. The formation of a cyclonic circulation at the surface favoured the dust uplifting. Such a surface low merged with a cut-off low that moved southward over the Iberian Peninsula and remained centred in the north of Morocco. Such pattern intensified the northward flow found at 700 hPa toward the Atlas Mountains range, inducing the dust transport above 3 km altitude. As expected, the simulations showed the ability to assess important details about the atmospheric circulation not resolved by low density of observations over the domain considered. Furthermore, the simulations were able to show the way that the atmospheric ingredients were brought together to produce the exceptional transport of desert dust toward Portugal. The orographic effects playing an important role in dust mobilization (convergence and cyclogenesis at the surface) and atmospheric circulation to the maintenance of the dust transport have been highlighted. Such event were responsible for the transport of high amount of dust toward the Iberian Peninsula.</p>

Late Pleistocene and Holocene dune activity and wind regimes in the western Sahara Desert of Mauritania

Geology ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Lancaster ◽  
Gary Kocurek ◽  
Ashok Singhvi ◽  
V. Pandey ◽  
Max Deynoux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Wind Regimes ◽  
Dune Activity

scholarly journals Diagnosis of the Relationship between Dust Storms over the Sahara Desert and Dust Deposit or Coloured Rain in the South Balkans

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. G. Prezerakos ◽  
A. G. Paliatsos ◽  
K. V. Koukouletsos
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Circulation ◽  
Dust Cloud ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Synoptic Scale ◽  
Yellow Colour ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Sand Storm ◽  
Dust Deposits

The main objects of study in this paper are the synoptic scale atmospheric circulation systems associated with the rather frequent phenomenon of coloured rain and the very rare phenomenon of dust or sand deposits from a Saharan sandstorm triggered by a developing strong depression. Analysis of two such cases revealed that two days before the occurrence of the coloured rain or the dust deposits over Greece a sand storm appeared over the north-western Sahara desert. The flow in the entire troposphere is southerly/south-westerly with an upward vertical motion regime. If the atmospheric conditions over Greece favour rain then this rain contains a part of the dust cloud while the rest is drawn away downstream adopting a light yellow colour. In cases where the atmospheric circulation on the route of the dust cloud trajectories is not intensively anticyclonic dust deposits can occur on the surface long far from the region of the dust origin. Such was the case on 4th April, 1988, when significant synoptic-scale subsidence occurred over Italy and towards Greece. The upper air data, in the form of synoptic maps, illustrate in detail the synoptic-scale atmospheric circulations associated with the emission-transport-deposition and confirm the transportation of dust particles.

scholarly journals Feeding Specialization of Honey Badgers in the Sahara Desert: A Trial of Life in a Hard Environment

Diversity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Jose María Gil-Sánchez ◽  
F. Javier Herrera-Sánchez ◽  
Javier Rodríguez-Siles ◽  
Juan Manuel Sáez ◽  
Miguel Ángel Díaz-Portero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Distance Sampling ◽  
Camera Trapping ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Feeding Specialization ◽  
Anatomical Adaptations ◽  
Available Information ◽  
North Western

The honey badger (Mellivora capensis) is a medium-sized carnivore distributed throughout Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Turkmenistan, and India. However, available information on its ecology is very scarce. We studied its feeding ecology in the remote north-western Sahara Desert, based on the contents of 125 fecal samples collected during large scale surveys. Samples were confirmed to belong to honey badgers by camera trapping and genetic analyses. Barely 18 prey species were detected. The diet primarily consisted of spiny-tailed lizards Uromastyx nigriventris and U. dispar (72% of volume in scats). Secondary prey items were arthropods (14%), small mammals (8%), other reptiles (4%), and eggs (0.8%). Some small geographic and temporal differences were related to the consumption of beetle larvae and rodents as alternative prey. Camera trapping and distance sampling surveys showed that diel activities did not overlap between honey badgers and spiny-tailed lizards, suggesting that badgers primarily dig lizards out of their burrows when inactive. Consumption of spiny lizards by other sympatric meso-carnivores was < 6.1% of occurrence (223 analyzed scats); the honey badger behaved as a trophic specialist in the Sahara, probably thanks to exclusive anatomical adaptations for digging. We discuss the role of this circumstance minimizing the exploitative competition, which could allow the survival of this large mustelid in this low productive and highly competitive environment.

The conflict in Western Sahara – an unresolved issue from the decolonization period

2002 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 375-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Peter Gasser
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Unresolved Issue ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
North Western ◽  
Phosphate Deposits

The territory of Western Sahara has an area of about 280,000 sq. km and approximately 250,000 inhabitants, known as Sahrawis. It is situated in the north-west of the African continent, where the Sahara Desert meets the Atlantic Ocean, and has a coastline of more than 1,000 km. In the north, Western Sahara has a common border of 443 km with Morocco, and in the south and west it is bordered by Mauritania (1,561 km). The territory also has a short common border of 42 km with Algeria. The climate is predominantly that of the desert: hot and dry in summer, cold in winter, with little or no rainfall. In the coastal regions vegetation may be abundant. While the Sahrawis were originally nomads, most of the population now lives in small towns and villages. The economy is based on agriculture and fishing, primarily destined for local consumption. Rich phosphate deposits are the main export commodity. There seem to be oil deposits off the Atlantic coast.

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