Based on the most basic common sense of people, deserts or Gobi are easily formed in dry areas, while forests and wetlands are easily formed in humid areas.
However, there exists a place that challenges our conventional understanding. This enigmatic protagonist we are about to delve into is none other than the Namib Desert. Prepare to be astonished by its ability to shatter "basic common sense" and leave you utterly surprised.
The Namib Desert is situated on the southwestern coast of Africa and is part of the arid region along the Atlantic coast. It is one of the four driest deserts in the southern hemisphere, along with the Atacama Desert in Chile, the Patagonian semi-desert, and the Australian desert in Oceania.
The Namib Desert is known as one of the oldest and driest deserts in the world. A British geologist once described it this way: the Namib Desert consists of half seawater and half flame, barren but full of vitality.
The Namib Desert is the narrowest coastal desert and the oldest desert in the world. It is located in Namibia and Angola and has been extended from Namibia to Angola. In other words, the Namib Desert in Namibia has a coastline of 1,600 kilometers.
The 300-kilometer desert in the southwest of Angola also belongs to the Namib Desert. As a result, the total length of the Namib Desert has reached 1,900 kilometers.
The Namib Desert is a coastal desert of vast dunes affected by fog. The desert covers an area of more than 300,000 square kilometers, with a buffer zone of 8,995 square kilometers. The Namib Desert consists of two dune systems, an ancient semi-solid dune covered by a younger active dune system.
These dunes are formed by material transported by rivers, ocean currents, and winds from thousands of kilometers inland. It features gravel plains, coastal plains, rocky hills, marshes within sandy seas, coastal lagoons, and ephemeral rivers, forming a landscape of exceptional beauty.
Fog is the main source of water for the site. As a result, this creates a unique environment that provides a unique ecological environment for endemic invertebrates, reptiles, and mammals to adapt to a changing variety of microenvironments.
There is such a long desert on the coast of Namibia, how did it form? The Namib Desert was formed 80 million years ago. Due to the encounter between the Benguela cold current and the dry airflow in the inland desert, the water vapor and sand were taken away. Turned into fine sand, the Namib Desert continued to expand towards the Atlantic Ocean, turning the ocean on the shore into land.
Despite being near the sea, the Namib Desert receives less than 10mm of rainfall per year. Although there are occasional sudden storms in the region, throughout the year there is often no rain, which creates a drought-like environment. Due to the lack of water, it is impossible for plants to grow in this arid desert.
Although there is no rain in the Namib Desert all year round, the coastal Namib Desert will be shrouded in layers of thick fog before sunrise every day. That's because the warm and humid air over the southwestern waters of the Namib Desert condenses into fog under the cooling effect of the Benguela cold current, but the duration of these fogs is particularly short.
So, do you have a better understanding of the coastal desert now?