Egypt
Thaindian
Here's the Abstract from Geology
Abstract
- Drought At The End Of The Old Kingdom
Scotsman (Lyndsay Buckland) They built the iconic pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza, which still stand as a monument to their skills and tenacity to this day. But the fall of the great Egyptian Old Kingdom may have been helped along by a common problem...
- More Re Out Of Africa Via Wet Sahara
Science Now (Michael Balter) Modern humans arose in sub-Saharan Africa as early as 200,000 years ago, but our species did not venture beyond Africa until at least 80,000 years later. Just why they took so long to travel north is not clear, but many researchers...
- Out Of Africa - A New Route?
Science Daily The widely held belief that the Nile valley was the most likely route out of sub-Saharan Africa for early modern humans 120,000 year ago is challenged in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A team led by the...
- More Re Drying Of The Sahara
Scientific American In a finding that may help scientists better predict the pace of climate change, research published in Science shows how the Sahara Desert, a region as big as the U.S. that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea across northern...
- Travel: The Complete Guide To Nile Journeys
The Independent on Sunday (David Else)Picture a map of Africa, and divide it in four. The top right-hand bit – the north-eastern quadrant, for the geographically minded – is dominated by the Nile. It has two main tributaries: the White Nile, flowing...
Egypt
Radar images reveal lost lake
Thaindian
The original article can be found in the December 2010 edition of the journal Geology but be warned that it costs $25.00 for a day's access to the article.
Geologists have found that a huge lake waxed and waned deep in the sandy heart of the Egyptian Sahara.
Tushka region of Egypt is covered by a huge sand sheet today, but years ago, it was home to a lake as big as one of the Great Lakes, said T. Maxwell, a geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Radar images taken from the space shuttle have confirmed that a lake broader than Lake Erie once sprawled a few hundred kilometers west of the Nile, reports Science News.
Knowing where and when such oases existed could help archaeologists understand the environment Homo sapiens travelled while migrating out of Africa for the first time, said team leader Maxwell.
Here's the Abstract from Geology
Abstract
Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data have revealed new details on the extent and geomorphic relations of paleodrainage in southern Egypt. Following a period of late Tertiary drainage from the Red Sea Hills south through Wadi Qena and west across the Tushka region, the Nile River as we now know it established its connections with Central Africa and the Mediterranean in the middle Pleistocene (oxygen isotope stage, OIS 7 to OIS 5). SRTM topography reveals a lake level at ∼247 m that is coincident with the elevation of middle Pleistocene fish fossils 400 km west of the Nile, and with the termination of shallow runoff channels in northern Sudan that were active during the middle Pleistocene and Holocene pluvial periods. An additional lake level at ∼190 m is based on the current elevation at Wadi Tushka, and is consistent with Paleolithic sites at Bir Kiseiba followed by Neolithic sites at lower topographic levels. Overflow of the Nile through Wadi Tushka during the wetter north African climate of the middle Pleistocene, coupled with limited local rainfall, was the likely source of water for these lakes.
- Drought At The End Of The Old Kingdom
Scotsman (Lyndsay Buckland) They built the iconic pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza, which still stand as a monument to their skills and tenacity to this day. But the fall of the great Egyptian Old Kingdom may have been helped along by a common problem...
- More Re Out Of Africa Via Wet Sahara
Science Now (Michael Balter) Modern humans arose in sub-Saharan Africa as early as 200,000 years ago, but our species did not venture beyond Africa until at least 80,000 years later. Just why they took so long to travel north is not clear, but many researchers...
- Out Of Africa - A New Route?
Science Daily The widely held belief that the Nile valley was the most likely route out of sub-Saharan Africa for early modern humans 120,000 year ago is challenged in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A team led by the...
- More Re Drying Of The Sahara
Scientific American In a finding that may help scientists better predict the pace of climate change, research published in Science shows how the Sahara Desert, a region as big as the U.S. that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea across northern...
- Travel: The Complete Guide To Nile Journeys
The Independent on Sunday (David Else)Picture a map of Africa, and divide it in four. The top right-hand bit – the north-eastern quadrant, for the geographically minded – is dominated by the Nile. It has two main tributaries: the White Nile, flowing...