WHY DESERTS MYSTERIOUSLY GETTING BIGGER

Do you know that about one third of the world’s surface is either a desert or semi-desert. Desserts are dry areas, with high temperature and little or no rainfall. The world greatest deserts are Sahara and Kalahari in Africa.

Before now, prehistoric cave paintings of animals like giraffes and elephants in the middle of Sahara desert were found. Even evidences were found that Romans grew wheat in some areas in North Africa which are now deserts

Now question arises, why are the deserts have not always been the same as we know now and why they are getting escalated day by day?

The Strong winds which move sands further out to cover the neighbouring land areas is the cause.  It is often seen particularly in regions of deserts. The action of wind on bare surface of the deserts reduces loose top soils to fine particles of sand. In sandy deserts, the surface is blown into raised strips. which are called sand-dunes. The constant movements of sands from one side of a dune to the other shifts the dune in larger areas – causing the expansion of the desert. Moreover, due to a very hot and dry atmosphere and also in absence of any vegetation, the process gets easily accelerated.

Other prime reasons for such phenomena are due to bad farmings. If a big field of light soil, for instance, is cultivated and left bare or too many trees are cut down without replacements, soil will blow away exposing the bare surface of the desert floor. Also, animals like sheeps, goats and other herbivorous animals grazing on a semi-desert area may cause expansion of desert to its full form. Besides these, many wells and pumps down the underground water levels affect the soil to help the formation of new desert areas.