Namib
Namib | |
---|---|
Length | 1,600 km (990 mi) |
Width | 50–160 km (31–99 mi) |
Area | 160,000 km2 (62,000 sq mi) |
Geography | |
Countries |
|
Coordinates | 24°45′07″S 15°16′35″E / 24.75194°S 15.27639°E |
Rivers | List
|
Official name | Namib Sand Sea |
Criteria | Natural: vii, viii, ix, x |
Reference | 1430 |
Inscription | 2013 (37th Session) |
Area | 3,077,700 ha |
Buffer zone | 899,500 ha |
The Namib (/ˈnɑːmɪb/ NAH-mib;[1] Portuguese: Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and northwest South Africa, extending southward from the Carunjamba River in Angola, through Namibia and to the Olifants River in Western Cape, South Africa.[2][3][4] The Namib's northernmost portion, which extends 450 kilometres (280 mi) from the Angola-Namibia border, is known as Moçâmedes Desert, while its southern portion approaches the neighboring Kalahari Desert. From the Atlantic coast eastward, the Namib gradually ascends in elevation, reaching up to 200 kilometres (120 mi) inland to the foot of the Great Escarpment.[2] Annual precipitation ranges from 2 millimetres (0.079 in) in the aridest regions to 200 millimetres (7.9 in) at the escarpment, making the Namib the only true desert in southern Africa.[2][4][5] Having endured arid or semi-arid conditions for roughly 55–80 million years, the Namib may be the oldest desert in the world[2][5] and contains some of the world's driest regions, with only western South America's Atacama Desert to challenge it for age and aridity benchmarks.[A]
The desert geology consists of
The Namib is almost completely uninhabited by humans except for several small settlements and indigenous pastoral groups, including the
Etymology
The name Namib is of
Geography and geology
The Namib Desert is one of the 500 distinct
Southern Namib (between Lüderitz and the
The source of the unconsolidated sand (the most recent sand sea) is dominantly from the Orange River, which drains into the Atlantic south of the Namib Sand Sea, with minor contributions in the east from the (now ephemeral) rivers that drain into the sand sea.[10] For this reason, the Namib Sand Sea has been referred to as the "wind displaced delta of the Orange River."[10]
Moving north from Sossusvlei, the sand gradually gives way to a rocky desert that extends from Sossusvlei to the
The Namib desert is an important location for the mining of tungsten, salt, and diamonds.
Several rivers and streams run through the Namib, although all of the rivers south of the
Climate
The Namib's aridity is caused by the descent of dry air of the Hadley cell, cooled by the cold Benguela Current along the coast. It has less than 10 mm (0.39 in) of rain annually and is almost completely barren. Besides rain being scarce, it is also unpredictable. Western Namib gets less rain (5 mm) than eastern Namib (85 mm). This is due to several factors. Winds coming from the Indian Ocean lose part of their humidity when passing the Drakensberg mountains, and are essentially dry when they reach the Namib Escarpment at the eastern end of the desert. On the other hand, winds coming from the Atlantic Ocean are pressed down by hot air from the east; their humidity thus forms clouds and fog. Morning fogs coming from the ocean and pushing inwards into the desert are a regular phenomenon along the coast, and much of the life cycle of animals and plants in the Namib relies on these fogs as the main source of water.
The dry climate of Namib reflects the almost complete lack of bodies of water on the surface. Most rivers flow underground and/or are dry for most of the year. Even when they are not, they usually drain into endorheic basins, without reaching the sea. The Swakop and the Omaruru are the only rivers that occasionally drain into the ocean.
All along the coast, but mostly in the northernmost part of it, the interaction between the water-laden air coming from the sea via southerly winds, some of the strongest of any coastal desert, and the dry air of the desert causes immense fogs and strong currents. It causes sailors to lose their way; this is testified by the remnants of several shipwrecks that can be found along the Skeleton Coast, in northern Namib. Some of these wrecked ships can be found as much as 50 metres (55 yards) inland, as the desert slowly moves westwards into the sea, reclaiming land over many years. Benguela's El Niño (similar to the Pacific event in its environmental change in the seas) spreads from the Kunene estuary southward to, on occasion, south of Luderitz. Warm waters with depth and associated water flow from the northwest were first fully catalogued by Sea Fisheries researchers, in Cape Town (L V Shannon et al.). The research noted the positive effect of Benguela's El Niño on the rainfall of the interior. Rainfall records also show positive values variously across the Namib, Desert Research Station, and Gobabeb for instance. This event recurs approximately mid-decade (recent examples are 1974, 1986, 1994, 1995, and 2006).
Plants and animals
Flora
Several unusual species of plants and animals are found in this desert, many of which are endemic and highly adapted to the specific climate of the area.
One of the most well-known endemic plants of the Namib is the bizarre
"Fairy circles", which are circular patches of land barren of plants, varying between 22 and 12 metres (7 and 39 ft) in diameter and often encircled by a ring of stimulated growth of grass, are found in the Namib,[12] such as those near the Wolwedans desert camp.[13]
Fauna
The Namib fauna mostly comprises
Human activity
Before the 20th century, some
The steppes in the southern half of the desert are mostly made up of ranches run by Europeans, who raise
The 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road was filmed here.[15]
In 2019 the Namibian-German artist
Namib-Naukluft National Park
The Namib-Naukluft National Park, which extends over a large part of the Namib Desert, is the largest game reserve in
Access to the park is either by gravel roads or dust roads (except for 60 km of concrete road from the Sesriem gate to Sossusvlei) or by light aircraft from Windhoek (the capital of Namibia, about 480 km or 300 mi northeast of the centre of the desert), or Swakopmund and Walvis Bay at the north end of the desert.[19]
Notable places
See also
- Animals Are Beautiful People, a nature documentary set in the Namib
- List of deserts by area
Notes
- ^ It is hypothetized that Atacama Desert had climatic conditions that were akin to the Namib Desert prior to the rise of the Andes in the last 25 millions years when Atacama turned hyper-arid.[6]
References
- ^ "Namib Desert". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2022-07-29.
- ^ ISBN 978-90-481-3054-2.
- ISSN 1464-343X.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-533770-9.
- ^ a b c Spriggs, Amy. "Namib desert (AT1315)". Wild World. World Wildlife Fund. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
- .
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-51649-5. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
- ^ Schoenbach, Kate (9 May 2020). "A mystery in the world's oldest desert". BBC Travel. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
- ^ World Wildlife Fund, ed. (2001). "Namib desert". WildWorld Ecoregion Profile. National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 2010-03-08.
- ^ .
- ISSN 0140-1963.
- ^ "Enigma of Namibia's 'fairy circles'". BBC NEWS. 31 March 2004. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
- ^ Pinkstone, Joe (30 July 2020). "'Fairy circles' of Africa baffle scientists". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
- ^ Logan, Richard F. "Namib | desert, Africa". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-07-28.
- ^ Conway-Smith, Erin. "'Fury Road' sparks outrage in world's oldest desert". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2022-06-17.
- ^ "Africa by Toto to play on eternal loop 'down in Africa'". BBC News. 14 January 2019.
- ^ Aratani, Lauren (15 January 2019). "Toto forever: Africa to play 'for all eternity' in Namib desert". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
- ^ "Namib Naukluft Park - A park of contrasts and extremes". www.info-namibia.com. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
- ^ "Namib-Naukluft National Park (Official GANP Park Page)". national-parks.org. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
- National Geographic, January 1992, pp. 54–85.
- Mary Seely: The Namib: Natural History of an Ancient Desert, 3rd ed., Windhoek: Desert Research Foundation of Namibia 2004, ISBN 99916-68-16-0.
Further reading
- Tonchi, Victor L.; William A. Lindeke; John J. Grotpeter (2012). Historical Dictionary of Namibia (2nd ed.). Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7990-4.
- Hamilton III, William J. (September 1983). "The Living Sands of the Namib". OCLC 643483454.
External links
- "Dune Patterns, Namib Desert, Namibia". NASA Earth Observatory. Archived from the original on 21 October 2005. Retrieved 5 May 2006.
- Namib Naukluft Park photo gallery
- Namib Desert photo gallery