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At the end of the last Ice Age, the Sahara Desert was just as dry and uninviting as it is today. But sandwiched between two periods of extreme dryness were a few millennia of plentiful rainfall and lush vegetation.
A timeline of Sahara occupation:
• 22,000 to 10,500 years ago: The Sahara had no human occupation outside the Nile Valley and extended 250 miles further south than it does today.
• 10,500 to 9,000 years ago: Monsoon rains begin sweeping into the Sahara, transforming the region into a habitable area swiftly settled by Nile Valley dwellers.
• 9,000 to 7,300 years ago: Continued rains, vegetation growth, and animal migrations lead to well established human settlements, including the introduction of domesticated livestock such as sheep and goats.
• 7,300 to 5,500 years ago: Retreating monsoonal rains initiate desiccation in the Egyptian Sahara, prompting humans to move to remaining habitable niches in Sudanese Sahara. The end of the rains and return of desert conditions throughout the Sahara after 5,500 coincides with population return to the Nile Valley and the beginning of pharaonic society.

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Deserts have not always existed. Every landform on Earth was once never there. Gobi Desert was formed by the Tibetan Plateau, which blocked precipitation from the Indian Ocean reaching the Gobi territory. It is a rain shadow desert. This desert gets 7 inches of rainfall each year. There are some theories are that the desert was formed by the sand being blown in and slowly building up the rocks found there today.

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Many deserts of the world are a function of wind circulation, occupying atmospheric high pressure zones. Factors also contributing to the formation and maintenance of arid conditions, other effects of circulation of oceans and atmosphere, rain shadow effects, cold ocean currents, interior position on a continent.

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Many deserts of the world are a function of wind circulation, occupying atmospheric high pressure zones. Factors also contributing to the formation and maintenance of arid conditions, other effects of circulation of oceans and atmosphere, rain shadow effects, cold ocean currents, interior position on a continent.

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Sahara Desert                                                                                                     7 million years ago the Sahara encountered the “drying of the Sahara.” Before this, the land where the Sahara now is, had a moist climate. The Sahara has many sand dunes (a mound of sand formed by wind). All deserts are located near seas. The Sahara is located near the Mediterranean sea. A Mountain near the Sahara is Tibesti. Mountains could result in the temperature rise in the “drying of the Sahara.” The Water could of changed the deserts landscape by flash flooding. Some evidence that the desert was formed and had a origin include:                    •	Dune deposits found in Chad    •	Terrestrial and marine findings

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Sahara Desert                                                                                                     7 million years ago the Sahara encountered the “drying of the Sahara.” Before this, the land where the Sahara now is, had a moist climate. The Sahara has many sand dunes (a mound of sand formed by wind). All deserts are located near seas. The Sahara is located near the Mediterranean sea. A Mountain near the Sahara is Tibesti. Mountains could result in the temperature rise in the “drying of the Sahara.” The Water could of changed the deserts landscape by flash flooding. Some evidence that the desert was formed and had a origin include:                    •	Dune deposits found in Chad    •	Terrestrial and marine findings

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Have deserts always existed?
Well, the Namib desert is one of the oldest, if not the oldest desert on the planet.

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The Sahara Desert.The Sahara Desert is located in north Africa and is the biggest desert in the world. but it was not always like this Around 7 million years ago the Sahara Desert had a wet and humid environment. It was green and home to many animals and life. But how did it turn into a desert well scientist have run a simulation of north Africa from the last 7 million years. They noticed a drop in the moisture this lead for the wet humid climate to decline and turn into a hot desert. The Sahara is also located on the tropic of cancer so sun the summer the sun will tilt toward the Sahara and evaporate the moisture in the air and make it hotter.

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The Sahara Desert.The Sahara Desert is located in north Africa and is the biggest desert in the world. but it was not always like this Around 7 million years ago the Sahara Desert had a wet and humid environment. It was green and home to many animals and life. But how did it turn into a desert well scientist have run a simulation of north Africa from the last 7 million years. They noticed a drop in the moisture this lead for the wet humid climate to decline and turn into a hot desert. The Sahara is also located on the tropic of cancer so sun the summer the sun will tilt toward the Sahara and evaporate the moisture in the air and make it hotter.

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It is thought to be that deserts have always existed, although this is not accurate. For example, the Sahara Desert has approximately only existed as a desert for 7 million years, however the Earth has existed for approximately 4.5 billion years. The Sahara Desert is located in the North of Africa. Changes in the Earth’s tilt toward the sun, over time, the solar energy received by the Northern hemisphere in summer escalates, varying atmospheric currents and driving monsoon rains. The movement of the tectonic plates beneath our surface, created the Mediterranean Sea and the Alps started the drying out the land, which is now known as the Sahara Desert. Dr David Wright of Seoul National University states that, “human communities spread through the region they warped the landscape to accommodate crops and livestock.

Crop farmers grew species of plants that left the Saharan soil exposed.

They also brought livestock that ate the vegetation, further uncovering the soil.

As sunlight reflected off the exposed soil, it warmed the Saharan air.

As more farmers moved into the region, more soil was uncovered, leading to further warming of the air.

This reduced rainfall and created weather conditions ideal for scrub vegetation.

Eventually rainfall virtually vanished, killing off much of the Sahara's plant life and leaving behind only a few hardy desert plants.”

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6,000 years ago, the Sahara Desert was covered in grassland that received plenty of rainfall, but shifts in the world's weather patterns shortly transformed the vegetated region into some of the driest lands on Earth. One archaeologist is now suggesting that humans triggered the desert's dramatic transformation, claiming that crop farmers set off a chain of events that pushed the area to its current dry and barren state. His research suggests that as human communities spread through the region they warped the landscape to accommodate crops and livestock. They also brought livestock that ate the vegetation, further uncovering the soil. As sunlight reflected off the exposed soil it warmed the Saharan air. As more farmers moved into the region, more soil was uncovered, leading to further warming of the air. This reduced rainfall and created weather conditions ideal for scrub vegetation. The Sahara Desert shows signs of ancient rivers and traces of plants and animals deep beneath its sands - evidence of the plain's greener past. The desert was green during the 'African Humid Period', in which West Africa became much wetter than it is today thanks to a series of monsoons. Africa has gone through several of these 'big wet' periods over the past nine million years. 'In East Asia, there are long-established theories of how Neolithic populations changed the landscape so profoundly that monsoons stopped penetrating so far inland,' he said. So my answer is; deserts haven’t always been on earth.

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Containing an estimated 10 billion tonnes of salt, the question often arises as to how Salar de Uyuni was formed. Essentially, the Altiplano (high plateau) here had no drainage outlets, which meant that water from the surrounding mountains once collated to form a giant lake. High salinity meant that whilst this vast, prehistoric lake has long since evaporated under the fierce Andean sun, a thick crust of salt remains, forming what we now recognise as the salt flats of Salar de Uyuni. Inconclusion this desert formed so it has not exsisted forever there fore deserts have not always exsisted

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Containing an estimated 10 billion tonnes of salt, the question often arises as to how Salar de Uyuni was formed. Essentially, the Altiplano (high plateau) here had no drainage outlets, which meant that water from the surrounding mountains once collated to form a giant lake. High salinity meant that whilst this vast, prehistoric lake has long since evaporated under the fierce Andean sun, a thick crust of salt remains, forming what we now recognise as the salt flats of Salar de Uyuni. Inconclusion this desert formed so it has not exsisted forever there fore deserts have not always exsisted

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Paarth Menon

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Deserts have not always existed but some of them are very old: the Sahara desert has been a desert for 86 000 years but has shown desert features as long ago as 7 million years. Deserts have changed majorly over thousands of years. An example is the Sahara desert. It had a period when it was green and had lush vegetation. But something changed. Some studies from last year think that humans had something to do with the destruction of the lush desert. According to David Wright;  “Goats are the prime suspects,” said Wright. “I've literally seen a goat eat a brick — they aren't picky eaters at all, and they eat a lot for their size. It wouldn't take many goats on a stressed out landscape to make a pretty big impact. ”The wind force that form sand dunes and the wind-blown surfaces. Is quite powerful that sand from the Sahara is blown by the wind all the way to the Amazon, recharging its minerals. The desert literally fertilizes the rainforest. Deserts are formed when rain clouds run into wind or mountains and drop rain in one area, leaving the land further away dry. Deserts that form near bodies of water are usually caused by winds. Sand is typically made mostly of varying amounts of material weathered from inland rocks (or Seacliff material) and transported to the beach on the wind or in rivers, and/or shells and other hard parts precipitated out of the ocean water by marine organisms. Sand therefore records processes at a variety of timescales. In deserts the temperature span is the largest in the planet, sometimes reaching 50 degres in the day and at night maybe reaching -1 to -5 degres.

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The world renowned photographer and inspirational speaker Art Wolfe has traversed the globe, working on every continent to uncover exciting, new perspectives of nature and indigenous cultures. Wolfe is also the star of the 13-episode television series "Travels to the Edge."
The son of commercial artists, Wolfe’s creative view of the natural world was shaped early in life. The family influence guided Wolfe to earn his Bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and art education from the University of Washington in 1975. Raised in Seattle, Washington, he still calls the city his home.

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Sahara Desert:

The Sahara Desert is the largest sand based desert in the world. The Sahara Desert was said to be formed over 7 million years ago according to geographers and historians. The movement of tectonic plates that created the Mediterranean Sea and the Alps also started the fast spreading drying of the Sahara Desert. Geographers can find out information about the Sahara from around 7 million years ago onwards due to the ancient world simulation that has been created today. At the closing of the latest Ice Age, the Sahara Desert was just as dry and uninviting as it is today but between these two periods, the Sahara had a period where it had lush grass and a fresh water source.

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•Task:

–Research and provide evidence and examples that support/or counter the belief that deserts have always existed

–Analyse the existence of deserts throughout time

–What are the origins and formations

•Specifically discuss what are the origins of the sand?

•What role do climatic conditions play in desert formation

–Select one desert from the world to focus your study on

– Research and contribute an in-depth discussion to be uploaded to Deserts Have Always Existed… Padlet Discussion Page by 15th of March