There are many claims that the Arabian Peninsular used to be a green jungle. This article came to mind [Geology (2015) 43 (4): 295-298. https://doi.org/10.1130/G36401.1]
Actually the claims are two:
1. Arabia was meadows and rivers and
2. it will once again become meadows and rivers.
We have adequate scientific evidence to understand that first claim is indeed a fact scientifically. However, I do not know much scientific explanations about the last prediction.
The Question is How scientific is this claim(s)?
If you have a source of water in a desert, you could turn it into a forest. How?
By planting trees you have a new source of water in the air (plants "breathing in" water as well as exhale water). This water can make clouds and bring rains, so that the forest can sustain itself. Theoretically, it can be done.
However, people always judge proposals like this by its cost. If too expensive, they abandon it. If, it is needed for survival, then it is another matter and money can be found from other sources, like buying weapons, rockets and other garbage we don't really need.
Well,
ONE day in pleistocene as shown in the attached map, you can see many rivers confluence into river pass through the region land(Shatt al arab extents) of Arabian Gulf, and this major river discharges into Oman Gulf.
Sincerely
Yes it is artificially possible. But I am talking about Nature! The claim that Arabia will become green once again. I want to know on what scientific evidence this prediction stands.
Actually the claims are two: 1. Arabia was meadows and rivers and 2. it will once again become meadows and rivers.
We have adequate scientific evidence to understand that first claim is indeed a fact scientifically. However, I do not know about the last prediction.
Thank you for your contributions @ Michael Issigonis and Bayan Hussien
Well,
According to the periodic paleo climate;
1. Glaciers at the end of the Ice Age: The distribution of ice in the upper range between the ice roles and the warm periods that permeated those roles changed as illustrated by the following:
a. The northern part of continental Europe during the Ice Age was the center of a huge ice cover, extending considerably to the south, west and east. In some periods the northern ice was related to the Scottish and Irish highlands.
In the south, the ice stretched to the edges of the Central German Heights. In the east, the entire northern part of Russia was covered by the ice to the middle of the Urals. In North America, Pleistocene glacier has accumulated and is being increased in the form of a great cover similar to that of northern Europe. Covering the northern part of the continent. During the Cold Pleistocene period, the drifts extended southward, varying in breadth, varying in length from one period to the next, allowing the ice age to be classified and divided into periods and stages, as in continental Europe. The ice in the Mississippi River valley has been extended to showrooms far below the European ice supply.
B. In the mountainous regions of continental Europe, especially in the Alps, glaciers continued until 10,000 years ago, the ice of Sweden subsided some 7,500 years ago, and in North and West North America, ice declined until its limits reached near Its current limits were ten thousand years ago, but when the climate returned to cold in the era of smaller ice.
2. Environmental Changes in Ice Margins Areas on the edge of ice sheets have been affected by special environmental changes in climate and natural vegetation, and have been estimated to account for about a quarter of the Earth's surface area. Evidence suggests that the climatic conditions that characterized the ice margins in the last ice-capped zone ran across a range that extended its southern border on the continent of Europe from southern France eastward around the Alpine precincts and along the Danube Valley.
Sincerely
Check the geological history of the area in the past, say, 600 million years. Climatic change can bring forests. The present dry land is not geologically old. If there are fossil wood remains as in the Sahara, and even those of mammals, it is possible with return of wetness to have rivers flowing.
Obianuju P. Umeji
Look at the effects of the "Sahara Green Wall" being built right across the desert. It has brought rain in an area with no previous rain. Saudi Arabia can do the same and better, because they have lots of monetary resources.
Look no farther than Australia as your analog. Almost he entire continent used to be rain forest back at the break-up of Gondwana. In fact, the oldest rain forests in the world today are remnants of that continental rain forest. Depending on which source you believe, the Daintree has been a subtropical rain forest for 120+ million years. Give the movement of continents over geologic history, the Arabian peninsula will one day be green and lush....you just might have to wait 100 million years.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Geoscience