What`s under the sand in the desert?

[Minimo]

If you dug down far enough under the sand in the Sahara or any other desert, would there eventually be solid rock?

Daft question I suppose but I`d really like to know.

[Mr_Squirrel]

If you dig down far enough anywhere you will eventually hit solid rock..........

The question is, whats between the sand and the rock?

 

All i know is that once upon a time the deserts were ocean and that the pyramids were once buried deep under the sand.

[Jabberwocky]

There are coal seams and layers of limestone and even underground lakes and rivers beneath the Sahara. Basically its the same as anywhere else except theres a bloody great layer of sand covering it all.

 

The UK was once part of a massive desert and there are areas where you can see evidence of this in the shape of sandstone and fossilised palm trees.

[olorin]

You will eventually reach lithified sand and sandstone, basement rock, salt diarpirs, lets of different things. The basement of the Saraha is very varied even if there is not much variation on the surface.

[WallBuilder]

If you look at the giza pyramids they sit on solid rock although now sand seems to be everywhere. When they've done excavations in the area they've found the rock quarries where the rock was dug up for building work.

One interesting point is that the natural rock in places shows signs of water run off obviously before the desert encroached and the body of the sphynx shows similar weathering which may mean that this is older than the present theories say it is.

[Mathom]

You will eventually reach lithified sand and sandstone, basement rock, salt diarpirs, lets of different things. The basement of the Saraha is very varied even if there is not much variation on the surface.

 

I was going to say 'bedrock of course!' but then it can't just be bedrock can it? Because sand is abrasive and surely that would then mean more and more sand would keep being made?

 

Nice user name BTW

[Longcol]

Dead camels. Loads of 'em.

 

And oil...........................

[Minimo]

There are coal seams and layers of limestone and even underground lakes and rivers beneath the Sahara. Basically its the same as anywhere else except theres a bloody great layer of sand covering it all.

 

The UK was once part of a massive desert and there are areas where you can see evidence of this in the shape of sandstone and fossilised palm trees.

 

I suppose what I was thinking was that if the sand could be removed would it be possible to make the desert a more fertile area, meaning more viable land for an ever increasing population. If there is significant water somewhere down there is it get-at-able?

[Jabberwocky]

I suppose what I was thinking was that if the sand could be removed would it be possible to make the desert a more fertile area, meaning more viable land for an ever increasing population. If there is significant water somewhere down there is it get-at-able?

 

The only way to make the area inhabitable would be to add soil to the surface- and that would take thousands of years. If I remember rightly Devon has extremely sandy soil and thats because the sand that was there when the area was under desert is mixing with the topsoil and that makes the grass beautiful and the cattle who graze on it produce the best milk.

 

Im not sure if it could be artificially made fertile and viable- not a huge area anyway but nature usually takes it in hand and changes it over time. Most parts of the world were once desert then rain forest then tundra then... well, you name it, most of the world was it at one time, even Antarctica.

[olorin]

I suppose what I was thinking was that if the sand could be removed would it be possible to make the desert a more fertile area, meaning more viable land for an ever increasing population. If there is significant water somewhere down there is it get-at-able?

 

There are huge amounts of water being mined by Libya - search for the Nubian aquifier and there should be plenty of Google hits.

 

The best thing you could do with it though would be to cover it with high efficiency solar powerplants and sell the power to Europe. That lets the African states buy goods with the money earned and gets them out of poverty and gets us out of generating CO2.