NASA animation shows how dust from the Sahara desert fertilizes plants in the Amazon rainforest
- 9 years ago
The Sahara desert, the world’s largest desert, fertilizes the Amazon rainforest, also the world’s largest, according to atmospheric scientist Hongbin Yu, the lead author of a study by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Relying on satellite data, NASA recently released an estimate of how much phosphorus is in the dust that travels from the Sahara to the Amazon basin.
Each year, million tons of phosphorus-laden dust gets blown from the Sahara, more specifically from an ancient lake bed called the Bodele Depression in Chad, to the Amazon by strong winds.
About 182 million tons of dust, enough to fill 689,290 semi-trucks, are carried across the Atlantic Ocean, where about 27.7 million tons of dust, enough to fill some 104,908 semi-trucks, fall atop of the Amazon.
Phosphorus is essential to the growth of plants, which the Amazon depends on in order to flourish.
Most of the Amazon’s phosphorus is washed away by rain into streams and out of the forest, but the amount lost, roughly 22,000 tons, is made up for by the dust from the Sahara desert.
The pattern of dust transported annually is highly variable. Scientists believe this variation could have been affected by high rainfall in the Sahel region, the long strip of semi-arid land on the southern border of the Sahara.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off.
For news that's fun and never boring, visit our channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TomoNewsUS
Subscribe to stay updated on all the top stories:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt-WqkTyKK1_70U4bb4k4lQ?sub_confirmation=1
Visit our official website for all the latest, uncensored videos: http://us.tomonews.net
Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj
Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f
Stay connected with us here:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS
Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS
Google+ http://plus.google.com/+TomoNewsUS/
Instagram @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus
Relying on satellite data, NASA recently released an estimate of how much phosphorus is in the dust that travels from the Sahara to the Amazon basin.
Each year, million tons of phosphorus-laden dust gets blown from the Sahara, more specifically from an ancient lake bed called the Bodele Depression in Chad, to the Amazon by strong winds.
About 182 million tons of dust, enough to fill 689,290 semi-trucks, are carried across the Atlantic Ocean, where about 27.7 million tons of dust, enough to fill some 104,908 semi-trucks, fall atop of the Amazon.
Phosphorus is essential to the growth of plants, which the Amazon depends on in order to flourish.
Most of the Amazon’s phosphorus is washed away by rain into streams and out of the forest, but the amount lost, roughly 22,000 tons, is made up for by the dust from the Sahara desert.
The pattern of dust transported annually is highly variable. Scientists believe this variation could have been affected by high rainfall in the Sahel region, the long strip of semi-arid land on the southern border of the Sahara.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off.
For news that's fun and never boring, visit our channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TomoNewsUS
Subscribe to stay updated on all the top stories:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt-WqkTyKK1_70U4bb4k4lQ?sub_confirmation=1
Visit our official website for all the latest, uncensored videos: http://us.tomonews.net
Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj
Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f
Stay connected with us here:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS
Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS
Google+ http://plus.google.com/+TomoNewsUS/
Instagram @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus