at the grand ol' age of 33, i have finally started college. below is a portion of my final Geology 100 paper i was hoping some of you might read. all comments/critiques welcome.
I was born in the desert. Not literally of course, because the hospital where I was born had water, which the deserts of our planet have very little of, as few as 25 centimeters per year to be exact. My hometown of Boulder City, Nevada is almost centered in the Basin and Range area of the American southwest, a seemingly barren landscape scorched dry due both to it’s proximity to the 30° North parallel and the rain shadow zone caused by the Sierra Nevada range to the west. The Patagonia Desert in South America and the Gobi Desert in China are further examples of a mountain range induced rain shadow zone; with the Andes and the Himalayas being the respective culprits. I spent my childhood chasing horned-toads and chuckwallas in what bears a striking resemblance to the surface of Mars, though I don’t believe Mars has cactus or rattlesnakes. And while I don’t know what the surface temperature on Mars is, I’d wager it couldn’t be much hotter. Temperatures in excess of 140°F have been recorded in some of the world’s deserts, and I have personally seen what happens to people who venture out unprepared into conditions like that.
Due to global air circulation, those regions nearest the 30th parallels have predominately clear skies with little rain and massive amounts of sunshine. These two factors combine to produce an environment with a high evaporation rate, creating some of the most hostile environments to life on this planet. In the arid deserts, the lack of water limits the amount and type of plant life that can survive, and therefore present a wide open landscape for the wind to punish all else into submission. With few trees to speak of- and with the plant types that can survive being short in stature and frail in bulk- the wind is a merciless tyrant who erodes everything at will. There’s a saying about weather in the desert, “It’s either hot, windy, or both!” The rain comes so infrequently that you begin to forget there is such a thing, but when it does arrive, it doesn’t fool around, often dumping several inches in only a couple of hours. Some of the most amazing and violent storms I have ever witnessed happen in the desert. It’s also one of the most dangerous times to be outside. The soil having been baked in the Sun until it’s as hard as concrete is unable to absorb the rapid influx of water and massive, vehement flash floods occur. They scour the landscape like angry liquid bulldozers destroying everything in their path. In areas experiencing desertification, humankind is reminded of how unforgiving the desert is. Areas once heavily populated and foliated are now void of anything but sand, rocks, and the remnants of civilization, which the desert will consume in due time. In closing, I will end with a quote of my own- a friend from back East once asked me what is was like to live where I did, my reply, “Everything dies in the desert.”
