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The winds blew Lake Manly from its original lakebed. But it also left the water shallower and muddier than before, forcing the National Park Service to close all boating activities in the lake. Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park in California, on March 4, 2024.John D Hallett / National Park Service ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Powerful 40 mph winds from Feb. 29 to March 2 in Death Valley blew Lake Manly two miles north, according to the National Park Service. The lake spread out to cover more ground, but at a shallower depth. The water slowly moved back to its original lakebed,...

Video at link: https://www.rideapart.com/news/689483/gold-wing-offroad-sand-dunes/

A California man died from extreme heat at Death Valley National Park amid the highest temperature recorded on Earth this year, park officials said. The 65-year-old man from San Diego was found dead in his vehicle on Monday morning, Abby Wines, a spokesperson for the park, told SFGATE. This came the day after Death Valley reached 126 degrees, the hottest temperature anywhere on the planet in 2023. A maintenance worker noticed the man’s vehicle just after 10 a.m. Monday about 30 yards away from North Highway, park officials said in a news release. The worker found the man unresponsive, prompting...

A Nebraska 18-year-old who celebrated his high school graduation with a trip to Arizona has been found dead in a desert bonfire pile — in what authorities described as a “malicious” death. Parker League’s body was discovered June 12 in the remote Bulldog Canyon, part of the Tonto National Forest, on the day he was supposed to fly back home after his trip to Tempe, KNXV reported. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office called League’s death “malicious.” The medical examiner is working to determine the cause of death. “He was found in the pile burning,” said police spokesman Sgt. Joaquin Enriquez.

All current Republican senators apparently support Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s bid for reelection, except one. Sen. Mitt Romney’s name is noticeably absent from the list of 48 senators Lee posted on his campaign Twitter account Friday. “I am grateful for the support of my Senate colleagues. Together, we will continue the fight for the American people. The failures of the Biden Administration and Democrats have damaged our nation for long enough,” Lee tweeted.

From time to time I will Look through my old quiet time journals. It helps me see how my walk has been. Sometimes I was down and discouraged, sometimes I was bold and grateful. My journal is a picture to the footprints in the sands of my past. This is an entry from December 12, 2008. I called it,"The Voice Of The Lord" If we were to truly hear the Lord's voice, it would be very powerful yet very calming at the same time. Those who walk in opposition to Him will tremble in fear at the powerful sound...

This episode is about China's Loess Plateau, which was anciently a lush area. But as more people made it their home, the demand for resources grew. Over the course of thousands of years, aggressive farming and overgrazing stripped away the vegetation almost entirely. This lead to severe soil erosion and eventually turned the Loess plateau into basically a denuded desert. In the mid 1990s, Chinese and foreign scientists and civil engineers surveyed this area to see if anything could be done to restore the land. The project that followed has implications that go far beyond China.

A hint of crazy things to come may be playing out in the Arizona desert — and it involves a giant species of cactus. Saguaros, which can live for centuries and grow to nearly 80 feet, have erupted in spring blooms that are spreading far beyond the norm. It’s almost as if the plants are breaking out in a rash of blooms. This is happening in the Sonoran Desert and experts suspect it may be an example of how the warming environment is impacting even the oldest of plants.A rare phenomenon is unfolding in Arizona: Saguaros cacti, which live centuries,...

It may have been Frank Sinatra’s kind of town, but it doesn’t appear to be anyone else’s. The late “Let’s Get Away From It All” singer’s Palm Desert, California hideaway — first listed in 2007 — is back on the market for $4.25 million. The remote Coachella Valley property was then re-listed again — in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020 — but each time has failed to attract a buyer.

Ever since their 2020 event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Burning Man Project has spent months debating whether they could safely hold a gathering at Black Rock Desert in 2021. Today, they announced the the answer is no. Burning Man revealed that despite the restrictions lifting across the United States as vaccination becomes more widespread, they will not hold their yearly event until 2022. A statement released through their website explained the decision: Advertisement "Humanity is experiencing collective trauma that is unprecedented in recent times, and while for some returning to Black Rock City may feel like...

CAIRO (AFP) — Ali Abdelaziz sees children as a “gift from God”, so much so that he has 10 of his own, even as Egypt’s government struggles to stem a “catastrophic” population boom. Abdelaziz works in the capital as a doorman, but his children stay in a village with their mother in the southern province of Minya where life is cheaper. Egypt’s overpopulation is adding pressure on the economy, already reeling from the political and security turmoil since the 2011 uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak. With 96 million inhabitants — and 9.4 million expatriates — the Arab world’s...

PATH TO PROGRESS   In a patch of barren land that hasn't yielded crops for centuries, engineers from the Sahara Forest Project say they're designing a sustainable farm that uses solar power to desalinate seawater for crops, then uses the runoff to fend off desertification. AQABA, JORDAN—Hope in Jordan is taking the form of a cucumber in the desert. It is not a mirage. Some say it is the future. In the arid southern desert of Wadi Araba, where scorching temperatures and dust devils leave scant signs of life, a team of environmental engineers is working on a solution for...

There’s hot, and then there’s Death Valley hot. While Southern California and much of the West cooked in July under a pair of heat waves that killed livestock, knocked out power and encouraged wildfires, nowhere was the heat more brutally enduring than in Death Valley. According to the National Weather Service, Death Valley National Park broke its 100-year-old record for the hottest month ever in July, when the average temperature was 107.4 degrees, eclipsing the 1917 record of 107.2 degrees. Though 107 degrees doesn’t sound that bad, keep in mind the average includes nighttime temperatures. The average overnight temperature in...

You can’t squeeze blood from a stone, but wringing water from the desert sky is now possible, thanks to a new spongelike device that uses sunlight to suck water vapor from air, even in low humidity. The device can produce nearly 3 liters of water per day, and researchers say future versions will be even better. That means homes in the driest parts of the world could soon have a solar-powered appliance capable of delivering all the water they need, offering relief to billions of people.   There are an estimated 13 trillion liters of water floating in the atmosphere...

Increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) have helped boost green foliage across the world's arid regions over the past 30 years through a process called CO2 fertilisation, according to CSIRO research. In findings based on satellite observations, CSIRO, in collaboration with the Australian National University (ANU), found that this CO2 fertilisation correlated with an 11 per cent increase in foliage cover from 1982-2010 across parts of the arid areas studied in Australia, North America, the Middle East and Africa, according to CSIRO research scientist, Dr Randall Donohue. "In Australia, our native vegetation is superbly adapted to surviving in arid environments...

Nanfang Yu, assistant professor of applied physics at Columbia Engineering, and colleagues from the University of Zürich and the University of Washington, have discovered two key strategies that enable Saharan silver ants to stay cool in one of the hottest terrestrial environments on Earth. Yu's team is the first to demonstrate that the ants use a coat of uniquely shaped hairs to control electromagnetic waves over an extremely broad range from the solar spectrum (visible and near-infrared) to the thermal radiation spectrum (mid-infrared), and that different physical mechanisms are used in different spectral bands to realize the same biological function...

Desert varnish grows much faster than geologists admit by Michael J. Oard Dozens of geological processes are commonly claimed to proceed too slowly for the short timescale of the Bible. Many of these claimed slow processes have attached dates of tens of thousands to millions of years. However, we usually only hear one side of the origins issue. It is too easy to make a wrong decision based on only one opinion. We should investigate the other side of an issue, especially when one side is heavily censored in the public arena. We also need to be aware that there...

'Some say that it is a miracle, while others are calling it a curse': Tunisian journalistTunisians are enjoying escaping the heat of summer by swimming in the mystery lake. (Pic @ Instagram) Nobody knows how, when or why… yet. The fact is, a lake has mysteriously appeared suddenly in the middle of Tunisian desert. No scientific explanation has been forthcoming as yet for for ‘Gafsa Beach’, discovered by shepherds three weeks ago. Authorities have issued a warning, according to a report in the Independent, that the water, which started off a crystalline blue and has since turned a murky green...

The stretch of water, dubbed the Lac de Gafsa, may be the result of a rupture in the rock above the local water table. The lake appeared in the Tunisian desert like a mirage; one minute there was nothing but scorching sand, the next a large expanse of turquoise water. Shepherds discovered the lake, thought to be up to 18 meters deep and covering one hectare, three weeks ago. Local geologists suspect seismic activity may have ruptured the rock above the water table sending the liquid to the surface.

Iran's Great Salt Desert (Dasht-e Kavir) photographed from the NASA Landsat 5 satellite on October 15, 2011. 1500 x 1000, 2000 x 1333, 3000 x 2000, 4000 x 2667, 4931 x 3287. Via http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-201312.htm