The Amazon Is Fertilised by a Dead Lake in Africa

Описание: Every year wind lifts about 182 million tons of dust past the western edge of the Sahara. Much of the phosphorus in it comes from the Bodélé Depression in Chad, an ancient lake bed whose rock is made of dead microorganisms. The dust crosses 1,600 miles of Atlantic, and 27.7 million tons of it settle over the Amazon basin — carrying an estimated 22,000 tons of phosphorus a year, about as much as the rainforest loses to rain and flooding. NASA worked this out from seven years of CALIPSO satellite lidar data (2007-2013), which also showed how unsteady the flow is: an 86 percent difference between the busiest year, 2007, and the quietest, 2011. NASA's own comparison for 27.7 million tons: enough to fill 104,908 semi trucks.

Sources:
• NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-faci...

Images:
• Saharan Dust on the Move — GSFC (Public domain (NASA media usage guidelines)) https://images.nasa.gov/details/GSFC_...
• Dust Storm, Sahara Desert, Algeria/Niger Border, Africa — JSC (Public domain (NASA media usage guidelines)) https://images.nasa.gov/details/s49-9...
• Sahara Desert, Niger — JSC (Public domain (NASA media usage guidelines)) https://images.nasa.gov/details/sts07...
• Casting Light and Shadows on a Saharan Dust Storm — JPL (Public domain (NASA media usage guidelines)) https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA04322
• Sahara Desert, Algeria — JSC (Public domain (NASA media usage guidelines)) https://images.nasa.gov/details/sts06...
• Mato Grosso, Brazil — JPL (Public domain (NASA media usage guidelines)) https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA11420

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