Study Explains Why Sahara Desert Turns Green Every 21000 Years

[@janerkenbrack3373]

I'm going to buy a bunch of land in the Sahara and everyone will be laughing at me. But in 15,000 years, I'll be the one who is laughing.

[@robertpaulson1058]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@lethargogpeterson4083]

Your descendants will hail your genius.

[@janerkenbrack3373]

@@lethargogpeterson4083 lol!

[@WaterShowsProd]

This is a person who thinks ahead.

[@janerkenbrack3373]

@@WaterShowsProd 🤣

[@LuciFeric137]

I live in the high desert USA. It looks quite barren, but when it rains the desert becomes a meadow. All those seeds and roots are just waiting patiently to bloom.

[@sjsomething4936]

It’s remarkable how they come to life so quickly even in soil that is mostly sand. The same thing surprises me about the Sahara. Would be fascinating to see exactly what types of plants grow there when the Sahara turns green again.

[@saurabhjadhav7656]

@@sjsomething4936 in 15000 years 💀

[@IuliuPascaru]

Some seeds can wait for decades, some of them as much as 70 years! There were reports that scientists were able to germinate seeds extracted from the Egyptian pyramids that have thousands o years to be stored.

[@terenceiutzi4003]

And with the rains in the coming minimum it will become a rain forest

[@LuciFeric137]

@@terenceiutzi4003 you might be right

[@WaterShowsProd]

Another interesting and important thing about The Sahara Desert is that winds blow the sands clear across The Atlantic Ocean and fertilise The Amazon in South America, otherwise there wouldn't be enough nutrients to keep that ecosystem thriving. My sister-in-law did a field expedition off the coast of Africa and they needed to sweep the sand off the boat every day, otherwise it would become weighed down with sand. Another example of the interconnected nature of the planet.

[@tommy-er6hh]

It is interesting to track how big the amazon basin forest is at different times, smaller when Sahara (and Arabia) is green, and it get bigger when Sahara (and Arabia) are dry.

[@sirseven3]

So if the Sahara becomes a Greenland again would the Amazon rainforest burn up due to death from lack of nutrients and build up of dead trees leaves and other plants? Also another question, does the Mojave desert follow the same trend of fertilizing the east coast of the United States and becoming Greenland after time and the east coast would adjust the same way?

[@navret1707]

It also blows across the Med and dumps heat and sand on Sicily.

[@tommy-er6hh]

@@sirseven3 Amazon fire - maybe, or maybe it just rots - it is still wet, just not fertilized. Mojave fertilizing the Midwest - there can be some, remember the dust bowl? But not much from the deserts, because of many mountain ranges in the way.

[@sirseven3]

@@tommy-er6hh well when plants start decaying overtime they will build up dry brush and if poorly kept (California wildfires). The dust bowl was primarily from not rotating crops and killing the nutrients in the soils. This is more so natural aging cycles that I'd like to study more and I believe the dust bowl was created unnaturally by us so it can't really be used. But I would also like to know the effects the dust bowl had on the east coast and for how long.

[@danoblue]

I've been in the eastern Sahara (Egypt) and the northwestern Sahara (Morocco) and it is a fascinating place. I live on the coast of Peru, which is also a desert, and it also has its beauty. A small error--the driest desert is not the Sahara but the Atacama, which I've also seen. I also remember how rains in San Diego in 1977, where I used to live, transformed the Anza-Borrego desert into a green meadow with lots of wildflowers. Deserts are fascinating places

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

Atacama is the driest place on Earth. I remember some soil samples couldn’t even find any bacteria, they were so dry, they were effectively sterile. Without water, there can be no life.

[@johnjallen]

Yup the hottest place is also not the Sahara

[@kissg6734]

It’s always about you dan 😂

[@danoblue]

@@kissg6734 What? Those who can, do; those who can't, insult commentaries on KZbin.

[@googlesucks662]

​@@danoblueNow you have insulted a great many. But I thank you for your information.

[@alexiere]

One of the reasons I wish I was immortal just to see the world change.

[@Garrett12362]

You could play a music instrument the whole time and absolutely master it. You know, while you're watching the mountains erode

[@al1383]

Being immoral would be scary. Unless it comes with other superpowers

[@op4lnah527]

Same, so much beauty on this changing planet and I’ll never get to experience 1% of it.. what a tragedy

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

Don't need to be immortal to see the world change. A lot happens within a normal human lifetime.

[@kaoskronostyche9939]

Be careful what you wish for ... you might just get it. Immortality, in mythology, is usually bestowed by the gods as a curse.

[@warrentreadwelljr.treadwel2694]

What I really love is all those older maps showing rivers, lakes, streams, and cities located in the Sahara. We know none of those existed during the time the maps were drawn. Since those were copied from older maps, it makes me wonder how far back in history were those maps first drawn. Our first cities and towns post date to when the cities and towns had been buried by sand for thousands of years.

[@erroneous6947]

The ones correctly showing Antarctica are very interesting.

[@JcoleMc]

You can still find the ruins of those cities there, is one such city located in Niger called Djado

[@HepCatJack]

There were stone world maps found in a cave in Ecuador, one of them showed India connected to Sri Lanka and another showed Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico and La Hispañola (Dominican Republic + Haiti) as a single large island. One of these maps had the pyramid with the eye symbol like on the U.S dollar.

[@karl0ssus1]

@@erroneous6947 They don't actually correctly show Antarctica. Many of these maps just assume a large southern continent must exist and include something far larger than Antarctica. As for why they'd do this, the Romans hypothesized the existence of a big continent at the "bottom" of the earth to keep it "balanced". It appeared occasionally on ancient maps, but the idea didn't really take off until medieval cartographers popularized drawing a big landmass blob at the southern extent of exploration and calling it a day. If you go through a succession of maps over time, this supposed "Antipodes" or "Terra Australis" starts connected to Africa and gradually retreats further and further South as explorers eventually round the Cape of Good Hope. Similarly when the Americas are discovered, the southern continent connects to South America, but eventually retreats as sailors reach and round Cape Horn. Its existence at that point is literally just a guess founded on prior exposure and an ancient misconception. Basically, they guessed. And it wasn't even a scientifically based guess, but an aesthetically based one.

[@Zer0fuks]

It is explained in detail to Solon by the Egyptian priests in Plato's Timaeus and Critias over 3000+years ago. Cataclysms destroy civilization, whatever happened to survive grows again and forgets all their previous knowledge, starting over again. Like we all did after the Youngest Dryas catastrophe roughly 12,000 years ago. We know next to nothing except speculation on Human life/civilization before the Ice Age because of this. Lost knowledge, like stone cutting using vibrating sonic tools

[@MrJudge51]

Another brilliant explanation of what happened in the past. Thanks Anton. ( and all the people behind this) Thank you. Great topic to explain my students. :-)

[@Sontus718]

You may also see some of the similar results in the southwestern USA deserts near the town of Indio, California - 7-8,000 years ago, what is now a high desert was very lush and covered with large lakes.

[@RazvanMihaeanu]

See the "8.2 kiloyear event"

[@bushwalker6214]

Don't tell this to dems or they will say that the electricity rate had to be raised 8000 years ago.

[@pin65371]

And then they build towns where those large lakes used to be and get confused when eventually those towns end up flooding out. That is the biggest issue with climate change. We keep on building in areas we shouldnt be and then freaking out when everything eventually gets destroyed. Same thing with building homes in a forest, having trees right next to their house and having everything on the outside of the house being flammable.

[@nutzhazel]

​@@pin65371It's a cycle of life

[@paulbrower]

Rainier -- and cooler. As an example, what is now Death Valley was the bottom of a deep lake bed. The Mojave River was a real river, and there were waterways connecting lakes ultimately to the Colorado River. Figure that the climate of the high Mojave was more typical of Canada today (no real deserts) -- at least the driest parts of the Prairie Provinces.

[@deathroll69]

Just imagine what is under that sand. So much of human history is locked in there.

[@billynomates920]

🤢

[@slthbob]

it is the sand friend... becomes so when the sand washes it away... every time

[@EndTikTokandTwitter]

Elon musk should empty the sand of the Sahara so we can uncover all the cities

[@MrCubFan415]

@@EndTikTokandTwitter Musk doing something good for humanity would be a nice change of pace from his recent actions.

[@natanulsiref]

@@EndTikTokandTwitter there are no cities. there might be flint and obsidian tools.

[@vaakdemandante8772]

Wow, the shrimps that wait for the rain buried deep in the sand are straight up a sci-fi horror theme.

[@ericvulgate]

I have them here in the painted desert! Very cool creatures.

[@tipfertool5457]

Or more likely inspired the Riddick movie.

[@zhain0]

ive had people call me an idiot because ive talked about this. people have a really limited view of what the world was and what it can be

[@robertmiller9735]

It's kind of understandable. It sounds like pseudoscience to somebody who doesn't know it's real.

[@nutzhazel]

Sometimes people ridicule you just to protect their own interests and narrative. This is common with religious and science fanatics where you will end up with a twisted version of reality or history, for example: Humans in Africa were thought to be apes just because of their colors, there is no ancient civilization elsewhere except in Europe etc.

[@mugwump7049]

Ignorance loves to call knowledge "idiocy".

[@Transilvanian90]

I've found that a lot of people (as well as government/media) tend to have an understanding of the world that's limited to a very short time-span, and they refuse to think about the bigger, longer changes that happen over centuries, let alone millennia. I do think this is also being maliciously exploited by the climate change lobby to fool people into thinking we're in some sort of human-induced apocalyptic event when the reality is far from it.

[@wbrennan2253]

I am sorry, but history really started when I was born. /sarc

[@annezwart5083]

Incredibly interesting. Thank you for making these informative videos!

[@TexanMiror2]

Absolutely fascinating, especially because this seems like, as you mentioned, a central mechanism for how and why humans spread across Earth, and evolved in the way they did. Yet, so few people know about these cycles.

[@juaquinfuentesjara7352]

small nitpick, the Sahara is certaintly the largest desert, but it also certaintly isnt the driest one, that would be the much smaller but a lot drier Atacama desert

[@sjsomething4936]

It’s also perhaps the hottest in some way (average temperature?), but it doesn’t have the absolute highest temperature record, that title belongs to Death Valley.

[@paulbrower]

@@sjsomething4936 The driest desert may be the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, a frozen version of a hot desert with hypersaline lakes fed by streams either of rare meltwater or from hot springs.

[@whuzzzup]

If you want to nitpick: Antarctic is the largest desert.

[@mugwump7049]

@@paulbrower I mean... Ice isn't exactly dry... Also it's McMurdo.

[@gifzilla1818]

​@@mugwump7049they're largely snow free and it hasn't rained in 2 millions years there. That's where they found the world's oldest raindrop

[@ArtisticlyAlexis]

Ha! This is exactly what I was researching for a novel I'm writing about a seemingly utopian society in the future set partly in a green Sahara! Thanks!

[@KT-xd9yt]

This is a fascinating episode

[@crabby7668]

We have known that at least parts of the Sahara were very fertile in the roman period as some called it the breadbasket of the empire. There are also Egyptian empire cities out in the desert that got abandoned when the desert encroached on them. I saw a TV program ages ago where an expedition went out In to the Sahara to investimate the basis of those cave paintings of humans and animals way out in the desert, including giraffes (cave paintings in Libya iirc). What they eventually found inbetween some outcrops of rock were some all year pools that were originally parts of rivers before it all dried out. How did they know they were remnants of rivers I hear you ask? The answer is that they found a small population of small nile crocodiles in some of the larger pools. They had managed to survive by gradually reducing size over the generations. This was a stunning revalation that proved that large parts of the Sahara had once been much wetter than now and that herds of other animals did indeed live locally.

[@GordoGambler]

I heard it was Muslim goat and camel herders that destroyed the agriculture.

[@crabby7668]

@@GordoGambler goats do indeed cause a lot of damage, because they will eat almost anything. Thus they can exist in very marginal areas, where in reality you don't want a bunch of large animals destroying everything in sight. There is also an issue in that many of these tribes who live in marginal areas mark their wealth and status in how many goats they possess, so try and maximise the numbers. So it's a bit of a spiral of doom. Add in the usage of any wood, that the goats don't eat, as firewood, and you have a very destructive regimen that depletes everything in the area then moves on to the next one. Generally, totally unsustainable.

[@jukeseyable]

you should be very carefull when TV programmes attemp to explain archaeology. And Large parts of the Sahara we not fertile in the roman period. The picture then is similar to now. In that the nile valley is extremly fertile. it is this area, and this alone that is been refered to as the bread basket. Drying forced the population to concentrate in the nile valley, driving up population density in the nile valley leading to the adaption of argiculture in that location. This occurs circa 7000 BCE, (5000 BC). at this point large parts of the sahara are all ready to dry to support humans. let alone 5000 yrs later in the roman period. Hope this clears up soem of the discrepencies for you

[@crabby7668]

@@jukeseyable and you should be careful in what you believe. There was more than just the Nile Valley that was avaliable for agriculture. Cities and former lakes have been found round out in the desert, even one that was considered too be the former Egyptian capital whose name escapes me at the moment. These were far from the current nile valley. The pools with isolated crocodiles were not a figment of someone's imagination, just because you haven't heard of them. And yes I know that some of these things do not coincide with the roman period, but never the less still show that some areas of the Sahara were much more liveable than they currently are.

[@jukeseyable]

Not in the roman period. and furthermore it is not a belief. it is knowledge. My degree is in near eastern archaeology. I specialised in the neolithic transition. My disertaion is "The relavence of central place theory to the analysis of settlement patterns on the Konys plain. I spent 7 seasons digging in Turkey, (please look up Pynabasi cemetery under Proff Doug baird) Additionally I spent 3 dig seasons working in the Nile delta. At the time period under discussion there is only 1 nile in Egypt, At the time of the Agricultural transition everything bar a few oasis is centered on the river Nile in what is considered the pre Badarian period, PPNa, (Pre Pottery Neolithic A). The oasis mentioned are certainly interestin, but their lack of scale means that they are all but irrevalent when compared to what is occuring in the Nile valley after 9000 BP. they are small scale hold outs at best. centers of importance they are not@@crabby7668

[@johnteevins7036]

As a stroke victim living a rather sad and severely limited intellectual life i have to say...thank you wonderful person.

[@der_teemo5300]

Stay Strong!

[@macrc2129]

This video is everything I've been studying about the desert for a while now. Thanks for making it! And I'm glad more people are spreading this new information.

[@RazvanMihaeanu]

*5:35** Anton, that's wrong!* I think you want to say 2 degrees of "axial tilt" (with a mean period of roughly 41 000 years). Because it's 1 degree of precession every 72 years or so (almost), thus the entire 360 is made in 25772 years (this is called "The Great Year" - the ancient astronomers believed - incorrectly - that it was exactly 72 years/"virgins" for 1 degree, thus resulting a total of 25 920 years). The 148 years difference (25772 v. 25920) was corrected by Dionysius Exiguus about 15 centuries ago, when he also divided this Great Year in 12 zodiacal signs/eras (25772 / 12 = 2147 years and 8 months per Era). Thus the corrected 148 years at the beginning of Pisces "Christian Era" (ending the Aries "Jewish shofar - ram's horn" Era... which previously - thanks to Moses - ended the "Ancient Egypt Taurus/Bull Era") started in what we know today as... *YEAR 1 - ANNO DOMINI* ...and now we are getting close to the Aquarius Era...the "New Age".

[@ulfricstormcloak5080]

As a geologist I find myself forgetting how short human history is and when I hear the Sahara changes every 21k years I think that’s very short but most people think a few thousand years is a very long time

[@aurelspecker6740]

There is also a potential that we green the Sahara by accident. There was a study, that showed, if we fill the sahara with solar panels, the albedo is decreasing so much, that the weather patterns change to a degree that it rains more. As soon as that starts, it starts greening, the albedo decreases further with the sand covered by dark plants. And consequently, the rain eats it's way inside to the sahara. Sure, these systems are super complicated and there are a lot more parameters. But the potential is definitely there. PS: Having a green sahara sounds very good, but it wouldn't stop climate change, quite the opposite, the lower albedo would even increase the energy input from the sun and further increase temperature.

[@dougselby7592]

Climate change can't be stopped, no matter what we do or how much power we hand to globalists. This video is about Milankovitch cycles for a start.

[@kenneth9874]

No it wouldn't, if the Sahara was green it would be much cooler and it would sequester a vast amount of carbon and absorb a vast amount of carbon dioxide while releasing oxygen

[@aurelspecker6740]

@@kenneth9874 How do you come to that conclusion? Did you make a study on this topic? Based on your claim, you have very little idea about the complex systems at work. Just fyi: deserts are not "hot" they are dry. These are two different things. The average temperature is directly correlated to the amount of sunlight absorbed. The sahara as a desert, has a very light color, with a high albedo (high reflectivity, i.e. does not absorb a lot of the suns energy). Green/dark colors (from plants for example) absorb much more energy. The water (from the plants) have a much higher heat capacity, making it less hot during the day, but containing much more energy. Sand on the other hand, especially if it's only surface sand, has a very low heat capacity, it get's hot very quickly, even with less energy input. At night, the opposite happens. Hot materials radiate heat in the form of infrared out into space. Some of this is retained in the greenhouse effect (the effect that get's us the problem in the first place) but some does escape eventually and through the an absorption "hole" of the atmosphere. Making it cool down rapidly. (This is why a car window can freeze, even though it is slightly above freezing, and why it get's a lot colder when there are no clouds at night.) The energy in water (and plants) has much lower temperature, radiating out less energy. Plus, this additional water in the atmosphere makes more clound, which again increases the greenhouse effect below the clouds. Making it even more "hot" during the night. All these factors make the energy absorption and retention even larger. Making the planet an even hotter place. This comes in effect immediately as soon as the area is greening. Though, once it is green, it doesn't get more extreme anymore. The CO2 sequestration on the other hand is a cummulative thing. The older a forrest grows, the more CO2 get's permanently sequestred. Or even better, if we use the wood etc for products, we can permanently sequester the CO2 from it. This however, is a LONGTERM process.

[@kenneth9874]

@@aurelspecker6740 are you a simpleton? Take a thermometer and lay it on the ground during the day under a forest canopy or in a grassland and compare the temperature with the same on bare sand....

[@aurelspecker6740]

@@kenneth9874 HAHAHAHA Ohh god, you are fucking awesome. "How to say you are an idiot, without saying you are an idiot." - you just mastered the challenge

[@robertfindley921]

Interesting as always! As I understand it, the Atacama Desert in Chili is the driest desert on Earth.

[@swissbiggy]

Correct, but the Sahara is the biggest and hottest. 😉✌

[@SparkyOne549]

Australia is the driest inhabited country.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

Interesting to compare Libya and Egypt-two neighbouring countries of similar size, both mostly desert. Libya has a population of about 4-5 million, while that of Egypt is more like 100 million. Why the big difference? One has the Nile river, the other doesn’t.

[@ArthursAtman]

I enjoy your content Anton, just please keep it coming--sincerely I nerd-out on this stuff

[@Craig332]

the scope, scale and progression of these natural systems is stunning to reflect on. I recently learned about the scablands of eastern Washington and now this. Thanks for keeping me curious

[@RalphEllis]

They forget the role of CO2. Increased CO2 during Milankovitch maxima, allows plant to grow in arid locations, like the Sahara. So this is a combination of increased rains, but also of increased CO2. R

[@easy_s3351]

I think CO2 levels also play a role. When CO2 levels are low plants have to open their pores more in order to absorb enough CO2 for photosynthesis but that also means more water can evaporate from those pores. As CO2 levels rise plants don't have to open their pores as much and are able to retain more water allowing them to grow more. This is one of the reasons that the earth has become 15% greener over the last decades, even in hot inhospitable areas.

[@Transilvanian90]

Yup; one of the many natural feedback mechanisms to climate variation, and one that's fully ignore by the alarmists who would have us think that the world is ending.

[@GastonMaqueda]

Interesting point

[@GastonMaqueda]

@@Transilvanian90 Absolutely agreed with your comment. All political Nature and climate is so complex that we can't understand all that process The only what we know is that nature always is changing. Climate, continents, currents, rotation hex, distance from sun and moon, speed. That is the reason why evolution exist The mechanism to adapt to that changes

[@greybone777]

Carbon paranoia. Carbon dioxide levels have increased from .031 % to .034 % in almost a hundred years. It is hard to believe that a change of .002% is effecting anything. I know personally that sea levels in Washington state have not changed from the 1960s until now. You people fart and think it's an intelligent thought if you're ass didn't get wet. Does anyone actually know out there what percentage of what gasses made up the atmosphere 🤔. Does anyone know that nitrogen makes up the majority of the atmosphere and like Carbon dioxide is completely clear. Can anyone out there tell me what the effects of 40 plus years of chem trailing has had or how much Carbon is released each year by volcanic action and fires. No because it's all nearly impossible to measure actual effects. The so called science is based on theory and flawed, purposely skewed models.

[@pippip8744]

If only cavemen had driven EVs.

[@m0j0rising]

I really enjoy your space related posts, but these forays into climate, biology, and other Earth-related science content are always a pleasant surprise. Keep up the excellent work, sir!

[@Rawi888]

Amazing. Deserts all over the world must have such fascinating secrets.

[@Teddy-rv8iw]

THANK YOU! I've been trying to find a good video that explains the desertification and refloration of the Sahara in a quick and concise manor.

[@arctic_haze]

I teach about this and in my opinion the question has been settled years ago. Sahara gets green when the Northern Hemisphere is relatively warmer comparing with the Southern one. It moves all the climate zones northwards and there fore makes Southern Asia monsoons stronger. The main factor here is precession: now we are closer to the Sun in January but at the beginning of the Holocene it was July (hence Northern Hemisphere was warmer in the time it gets solar radiation). Another factor is the presence of glaciation which makes Northern Hemisphere colder (it reflects solar energy). This is why Sahara got green only after the Scandinavian and North American ice sheets have melted (early Holocene).

[@paulbrower]

Actually -- summers are hotter and winters are colder in the Northern Hemisphere during a 'wet Sahara' during interglacials.

[@arctic_haze]

@@paulbrower Source, please. This is my field but I have never seen a paper stating that.

[@TheHappyhorus]

I love the variety of topics you discuss Anton, like many I am sure i would love to go to the pub and chat about the universe with you. Keep up the brilliant work.

[@martineldritch]

The precessional cycle is actually completed every 25,771.5 years.

[@RED911]

Thanks!

[@burningkarma6400]

The persession of the Earth, and how it turns lush rain forests into deserts, plains into frozen artic's in a day is a great rabbit hole to go down. Makes the mythologys around the world, and ancient civilization theories really interesting

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

Where did you get “in a day” from, the earths axial tilt doesn’t even process in tens of thousands of years.

[@SR-iy4gg]

procession

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

@@SR-iy4gg Bruh.💀

[@burningkarma6400]

@@Auroral_Anomaly you can look up how animals in Siberia were frozen within hours, hinting at a drastic climate shift; with tropical plants still in their bellies. Interestingly around the same time 23,000 years ago. Hence why we are due another one

[@burningkarma6400]

@@SR-iy4gg thank you, English isn't my first language. I tend to spell as it sounds ^_^

[@pridefulobserver3807]

So the Sphinx water erosion makes it ridiculously old then...

[@geofflewis8599]

as the Sahara transformed into desert, humans moved east to the Nile, the last major river system in North Africa..

[@peterwhyte-zl1kv]

Thank you Anton. That was one of your best (for me)

[@susanjane4784]

Many do not know that only 25% of the Sahara is sand dunes. This is true for other large deserts including the USA. Those sexy curves and sand undulations are fascinating and more interesting than the exposed rock and grit. Also, the peonology of the Sahara is making some great findings.

[@TigerLily61811]

peonology? what's that

[@StreetComp]

The Sahara turning to desert could very well have been one of the most important things that happened in human history. The quick desertification of the enormous region forced the spread out pockets of humans to migrate, and following animal herds they eventually found fresh water at the Nile and over several thousand years enough people came to live along the Nile where they could reliably farm and eventually Ancient Egyptian civilization came to be…

[@nicodesmidt4034]

Precession seems to take 24771.5 years, a bit longer than the 21K years claimed here…

[@katharina...]

Aaah, close enough.

[@nicodesmidt4034]

@@katharina... yeah, nobody cares about 3771.5 years anyway in less than a 100 years 😃🤣

[@vaunjeis6751]

Wow. It turns out the rains down in Africa blessed us.

[@redpanda2961]

So is it possible that the Eye of the Sahara could have been Atlantis after all?

In school I learned that the sahara is a desert because of the trade winds. It is bathed in dry air from the equator

[@tfsheahan2265]

This is the most understandable explanation of the 5 or 6 videos I've watched since I started watching them in 2011. It would be even better to know which axial tilt (21-24 degrees) is the one that induces the west African monsoon to start delivering the most rain. Or is it more than one, for example one when the tilt is increasing, and another when it's decreasing?

[@XL-5117]

The Atacama desert is the driest nonpolar desert. I’ve crossed the Sahara desert from Algeria to Niger and it is dry and a challenge to cross. Survival is hard even in groups travelling in trucks. There’s not many watering holes or stations and those that you come across are nothing like those in The Road to Morocco! The sky at night is so unbelievably clear, you can see the milky way stretching out bright and clear. Don’t be tempted to camp out without a tent or you might find yourself with an unwanted guest under your camp mattress when you wake up in the morning, a scorpion has curled up and taken advantage of your body heat in the cold desert night!

[@m.pearce3273]

2:59 the newest results suggest the change was rapid as in the change occured within the references of those who lived in these climbs and times, eg as little os 40 yrears

[@afterimage289]

I wish someone would fund a project to scan the Sahara and find all the ancient stuff that is most likely buried under the stand.

[@TheRotnflesh]

The Sahara is a beautiful mystery.

[@greyarea3804]

I thank you brother. Your videos leave people to do a lot more thinking and that I appreciate. Shears and keep them coming

[@CharveL88]

It's nice to see the phrase "climate change" used in it's proper scientific context

[@williammeek4078]

You do realize that human caused climate change is still the proper scientific use of “climate change” right?

[@chad0x]

Funny to see someone who thinks man made climate change isnt a thing.

[@ArtisticlyAlexis]

Reading this hurts my brain as much as reading flat earthers. 🤦‍♀️

[@billynomates920]

there does seem to be an unscientific bias when it comes to who can and can't talk about climate change on this platform free from a blue banner enforcing the un's scienticious edict on the matter @@williammeek4078

[@CharveL88]

@@ArtisticlyAlexis of course it does. It’s hard to think for oneself and much easier to be told what to think but there’s always hope you can educate yourself!

[@jimcurtis9052]

Wonderful as always Anton. Thank you. 🙏😁

[@eatenpancreas]

I love your optimism in topics like this. Even though we can only hope humans won't go extinct, we know for sure animals will keep on going.

[@EverDayBest]

replace animals with 'some species'

[@1mightymouse]

Thanks anton your topics are fantastic. 😊

[@galynnzitnik4600]

It would be interesting to find out if other northern hemisphere deserts such as the Gobi also greened and dried then greened again in synchrony with the Sahara.

[@tommy-er6hh]

Well, i know Arabia did. And the Atacama desert in Peru used to be green.

[@TheTilitus]

Thaank you Anton! Iv been wanting to read up on this.

[@bearcubdaycare]

The time of the last African Humid Period overlaps the timeline of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, it's that recent. It'd be fascinating to learn more about the cultures of the Sahara during the Humid Period. A green Sahara again would certainly be a boon (as would wetting and greening of other deserts, and warming of cold dry regions). This current ice age (as we're technically still in) is not quite ideal for life, and humans.

[@tommy-er6hh]

a time line of a different world, the period when Sahara stated to go dry: c. 10,000 BC Tell Qaramel (Syria) town with 5 tower like buildings. Also 1-2 million people on whole earth! c. 10,000?? BC Tunguska like meteor hits Atacama desert in Chile (then forested). c. 9,700 BC A meteor hits and destroyed Tell Abu Hureyra (Syria) a settlement where farming may also have begun. c.9100 BC - c.7300 BC Göbekli Tepe, Boncuklu Tarla, Karahan Tepe (Turkey) oldest megalith circle sites/religious temples built by hunter/gatherers villagers, buried in c.7300 BC; & Jerf El Ahmar (N Syria but flooded by modern dam) religious? site. Also short-faced bear goes extinct in America. Ocean is much lower - Great Britain and Ireland attached to Europe plus (North Sea)/Doggerland, both Baltic & Black seas were brackish lakes isolated, Adriatic (in Mediterranean) and Persian Gulf were ½ land, melting glaciers are still in Scandinavia, part of Scotland, central Ireland, and Russia. Egyptian coast was further out to sea. Much of Indonesia was dry land connected to Asia, Ceylon was connect to India. Sahara and Arabia are still green savanna with rivers and lakes. c. 8500 BC Nevalı Çori, (Turkey) settlement religious monuments [also Gudang Padang Megalithic Site (Indonesia) possibly? built ]. World temperatures rise to near modern levels, slowly oceans rise, glaciers retreat more. The freshwater Ancylus Lake (forerunner of Baltic) connects to North Sea. Forests creep up into N Europe & Russia previously tundra areas, reducing population there used to tundra. Humans 1st inhabit Cyprus. Also dwarf mammoths of Crete go extinct. c. 8000 BC Jericho (Israel) early human city with tower & walled with stone tools by the pre-pottery Natufian culture, agriculture “starts” in Mid East with first wheat farming. Humans settle Tierra del Fuego, covering the Americas. Also 3-5 million people on Earth! c. 7500 BC - 5000 BC Çatalhöyük, (Turkey) city, many idols found. c. 7550 Gobero, Niger, graveyard used by 6’8” paleolithic giants until 6000 BC. 7176 BC A massive solar coronal ejection hits earth that causes a spike in the carbon 14 and beryllium isotope production. c. 7100 BC Last saber tooth cat goes extinct in Argentina. c. 6500 BC American Indians around lake Superior start using raw copper. c.6500-5900 BC first sign found of humans on Crete, Sicily/Sardinia, and Malta. 6,200 BC - 8.2 kiloyear Bond event Atlantic cooling drought world wide (again possibly caused by the melting ice dam flood of vast glacial lake Objiway in N. America through St. Lawrence that disrupted the Gulf Steam); also last of Doggerland (now under north sea) submerged possibly due to Storegga Slide tsunami off Norway. In USA after Objiway melt/flood, the Great Lakes shrink to 50 ft lower then present depth due to bad drought. c. 6000 BC Humans resettled Ireland. English channel is formed as glaciers retreat, and also Irish Sea floods with rising oceans making Ireland separate from England; Australia separates from New Guinea; also last equid (little horse) dies in Americas. N. Europe and England become densely forested & the Mesolithic (middle stone age) population there halved. Possible? civilizations in Persian Gulf and in Gulf of Cambay (off India) slowly drowned/forced to move by rising seawater. First pottery found in Middle East; first Ziggurat pyramid built for religious reasons (Iraq) - with stone tools!; followed by first known copper smithing/melting in Middle East. 5-10 million earth Pop!

[@alanmacification]

I'm afraid I'll have to differ with you on that. Humans and all the flora and fauna we use for food evolved during the present ice age, we and they are adapted to and for it. We have even evolved to eat low quality foods like grains and starchy tubers that other apes don't. Also, the large plains, prairies, and steppes with use for huge industrial farming operations are a result of the this ice age and an unprecedented 10,000 year long stability in the climate that gave rise to agriculture. That has been destabilized.

[@paulbrower]

@@tommy-er6hh Nitpick -- the Atacama has been desert irrespective of the climatic regimefor about 30 million years, when South America and Antarctica separated, or when the Andes rose and blocked off any moist winds from the east.

[@tommy-er6hh]

@@paulbrower Welp, when i read about the crater in Chile, the article stated it fell in what is now the Atacama desert, but at that time 10,000 BC it was green. Are you so certain that the desert never ever varied?

[@paulbrower]

@@tommy-er6hh According to Wikipedia it has been desert since the Middle Miocene about 13 million years ago. There is a smal patch of 'forest', but this could be an oasis effect.

[@kaoskronostyche9939]

I have known a bit about this but thank you for the more comprehensive look at this new information. Cheers!

[@simontmn]

I'm surprised not to see the UN/KZbin "climate change is mostly manmade" helpful note attached to this one.

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

Give it time. Eirher it will appear or the algo had too difficult of a time understanding Anton's accent.

[@SR-iy4gg]

This video has only been up a few minutes.

[@pin65371]

I like reading up on the ice ages on science websites. They mention all these things. Then on the same website when they talk about climate change itself they only talk about CO2. I have no doubt we as humans arent helping the situation but its laughable to believe we are making a huge difference. Instead of putting all of our money into stopping the use of fossil fuels we should be putting money into making sure our infrastructure can deal with a changing climate. If we actually built houses properly a few degrees hotter would make absolutely no difference. If we didnt build towns in areas where fairly recently it was a lake then flooding wouldnt be as much of an issue. If we didnt build homes in forested areas where everything on the exterior of the home was extremely flammable forest fires wouldnt be as much of an issue. Tornados and Hurricanes can be dealt with as well. We dont do any of that though so it ends up turning into a massive disaster every time bad weather happens.

[@WhimsicalShark]

Hasn't appeared yet

[@AlbertaleoAlbertalei]

Great video Anton. Thanks. Milutin Milankovich seems to have been on to something here.

[@BlackyBrownDestruction9337]

Are there more stars in the universe than grains of sand in the sahara desert?

[@martineldritch]

A group of researchers at the University of Hawaii concluded there were more stars in the universe than all the grains of sand on Earth.

[@chad0x]

Yes. Unimaginably more.

[@KuntChitface]

After watching 40 hours of David Butler, yes. Yes there are more stars... Space is almost inconcievable how much is out there. Ill just lump it up to infinity

[@DaveLopez575]

I learn so much watching your shows.

[@SR-iy4gg]

It's already starting to green up more than it had. Look at the The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. They expected it to take up to 7 years to fill, and it only took 2. It was built in the middle of a desert!

[@paige-vt8fn]

Wow, thank you for this update about our Sahara, very fascinating and encouraging! Nice one Anton! 👍

[@SqueakyChase]

Anton, this is good news for everyone. Now that we're warming up, Africa gets more rain! I feel good about driving my F350 now! Imagine the property values of the 'once' desert. Do you think it's too early to invest in desert properties? Thanks Anton.

[@chad0x]

Your literal dream car

[@SqueakyChase]

@@chad0x No kidding, and it gets used a lot. Recently I've been hauling some loads of firewood I cut up on my property to several elderly neighbors that aren't able to cut their own wood anymore. In the winter I plow their driveways. I'll stop and talk with them a bit and maybe have a cup of coffee, but I don't charge them anything as they live on small fixed incomes. I once considered getting a lowered 1981 Oldsmobile Cutlas with fancy rims and tires that are worth more than the car itself. But then I wisely thought, "that's cultural appropriation" so I didn't get it. I once thought about getting a Prius, and as fancy as they are, I'm not LBGTQ so again, I don't want to culturally appropriate. Thanks Chad.

[@darthheisenberg5983]

Its better to invest in greenland ores. Greening of sahara wont happen.

[@atanacioluna292]

I love this study, more evidence that rain is a break in the stratification of humidity energy in the atmosphere. The book Pluvicopia shows how to artificially break the stratification to turn most deserts into gardens.

[@OsRaunio]

This is a global phenomena, not just Sahara. During the ice ages, climate gets colder, and less moisture leaves the oceans. This will make huge deserts globally and shrink forests. During the warm period, more moisture leaves ocean to atmosphere, and monsoon winds are stronger, so the moisture is carried to inland, that used to be deserts. Warmer climate also brings more CO2 to atmosphere, helping plants to grow in dry environments. We are going towards next ice age glacial period, so we should expect bigger deserts. The slight increase in temperatures in last 300 years and last 30 years has made the deserts, like Sahara greener, but the climate is still much colder than in Holocene Climate Optimum. The scare stories of global warming causing Sahara to dry are not based on science.

[@darthheisenberg5983]

There is one major difference. The gradients. Holocene climate optimum caused green sahara by reducing gradient between north atlantic and south atlantic. In the last 100 years south atlantic has been warming more than north.

[@OsRaunio]

@@darthheisenberg5983 Maybe so, but at the moment we are seeing increased rainfall and increased vegetation in Sahara .

[@darthheisenberg5983]

@@OsRaunio account for oscilations. Greening and browning cycle here is around 70 years.

[@OsRaunio]

@@darthheisenberg5983 Aren't the oscillation also causing general warming, not just reduced gradient?

[@darthheisenberg5983]

@@OsRaunio nope that is either co2 or the sun. Oscilations effect only gradients.

[@annemaria5126]

So very interesting. I sincerely hope new scientists will go on discovering new things in all aspects. And never think they found 'the' solution or 'the' answer, but allways use terms like 'we think', 'as for now we assume', 'we learned', 'we discovered new evidence'..... That is what makes science so wonderfull and an everlasting journey.

[@markdeffebach8112]

Hi Anton, Enjoy your videos. Would love to hear your take on anthropomorphic climate change. I've recently tried seeking out scientific arguments for and against man generated CO2 as the driver for anthropomorphic climate change. I find this issue entirely too politicized making it difficult to find real objective scientific explanations of how earth's climate works and what if any effects we humans have on earth's climate. I find it disturbing that "climate change" is defined as human caused when we know it perpetually changes. I find claims that the science is settled disturbing when we know that science only grows when we constantly question and test our assumptions and theories against increasingly better observations. I bring this up since this video discusses a real observed climate cycle. Hope you will consider breaching this controversial topic, but understand if you find it too politically charged to discuss on a highly policed platform.

[@alruiz5096]

Always great content. Thx!

[@ChuckThree]

The trees are underneath the sand, aren’t they?

[@nonotorious1467]

Yeah they're just waiting for the wind to pick up a bit and blow the sand off, turns out the sahara is a big oganism that travels around the world really slowly.

[@bushwalker6214]

In Roman Empire the Africa province (modern Libya) was the main supplier of wheat. Apparently it wasn't as dry as it is now.

[@Shino_666]

the special map got it's own routine patch updates.. 😅

[@corneliusprentjie-maker6715]

Thanks Petrov. You are a wonderfull person. Wish you much happiness. Thanks for the education.

[@rcschmidt668]

This dry/green cycle is quite a discovery.

[@ariels3372]

i been wating for more on this story

[@mugwump7049]

6:17 I would have never expected Anton to talk about Burning Man...

[@risibleraven]

Good one Anton. Thanks

[@jimmierodgers1597]

Hi Anton, I’ve watched a few of your videos and I appreciate your dedication and consistency in brings us interesting scientific discoveries and theories… I also have a question for you: it seems you put stock video footage of actual tadpoles wriggling in this video, as if they were the “tadpole shrimp.” Am I mistaken?

[@Faustobellissimo]

You're making a confusion between "tilt" and "precession". 21000 years is the duration of a cycle of precession, combining axial precession (25700 years) and absidal precession (112000 years). The cycle of the axial tilt, on the contrary, is 41000 years.

[@nathanwoodruff9422]

I wonder what SUV's the Ancient Egyptians were driving 21,000 years ago.

[@Da__goat]

It’s just due to the monsoon rains, but the cycle of the exact winds is why it comes back and forth over time. The West African Monsoon is also the reason why Morocco is green in the Atlas Mountains as it is just far enough west and north that it clips the systems coming in from the Atlantic. The Monsoon can shift south or east but it also depends on the other larger weather systems that are spinning around the world. So if something like the norther polar vortex shifts too far south it can push the Gulf jet stream further east, and if it does this at the right time, West Africa enters a monsoon season.

[@imafackinjunglist]

Kinda weird that Atlantis was 8500-9000 years ago and it’s location is assumed to be exactly where the Sahara would of been green 9000 years ago. If it was green 9000 years ago it would seem like the perfect place for some kind of predecessor civilisation for Egypt, Greece & Rome. Something I feel that is missing from history in the same way there is a missing link for the human species. There is also a missing link in the lineage of civilisation that could only be described by a pre existing civilisation condemned to obscurity. Something that would be extremely probable given we claim to have evidence of all the significant ones but on further thought it would be even more of a ridiculous claim.

[@robster985]

Good stuff!!!

[@mscir]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[@deepg7084]

Anyone who follows Randall Carlson probably loves this topic. He has studied how water shaped the landscape in the Sahara (among other places around the world). There are places where there are ripples in the landscape that only large floods could have caused. Plus there are large salt flats, sea shells, and even a whale fossil hundreds of miles from the current shoreline. Bright Insight is another interesting channel on this topic.

[@dexocube]

He's one of those pseudoscience guys right?

[@BramBiesiekierski]

​@@dexocubeno. That's what his detractors call him. Personal attacks, rather than scientific debate, from the so called scientists. I think that speaks volumes about his ideas

[@dexocube]

@@BramBiesiekierski I tell you what, instead of relying on creating a narrative about a person to decide if everything they say is gospel, maybe you should examine their work to see if there is any actual science present?

[@ordinaryorca9334]

I wonder how the Arabian Desert, Iranian deserts and the arid Iberian steppes were influenced aswell, the effect could not stop suddenly when it got to the Sinai or Gibraltar but I can't predict how much these places would change

[@robinfarina2966]

Great content

[@katchibediako7036]

When I was a child, the northern region of Africa was green in the maps (there was no internet yet). In the book "Food, the Gift of Osiris", Osiris is quoted as saying that when he conquered Cush, he "pushed back" and tamed the marsh1land and swamps. So I've always believed that the Sahara used to be lush, especially since only a few decades ago, there used to be a lot more green. Recently, they said that the sphinx was also submerged in water at its base. I don't think the green period was that long ago.

[@abj136]

Interesting thoughts here. Geology says the Sahara was green about 5000BC. There is little record of more recent times. This century the Sahara is retreating and becoming greener on its borders. Who wrote “Food, the Gift of Osiris”? Osiris was an Egyptian god, might have been a prehistoric king of Egypt, who knows. The marsh land and swamps still exist, but these are southwards on the Nile river, in the Sudan, south of the Sahara. The submersion of the sphinx, that’s a debated idea. If the sphinx is super super old, it’s plausible, and would have been a time when the nearby Nile river was much higher and water seeped in from the ground. If the sphinx is more recent, its base might have been “submerged “ in the time before it was carved.

[@katchibediako7036]

@abj136 I'm not sure who wrote the book, but definitely not Osiris. A Portuguese diplomat gifted me with it, but it was lost during a move 12ys ago. Recent scientists were saying that the base of the sphinx showed water erosion that was typical of it being submerged rather than weathered, but I'm not hard fast on any theory. I'm surprised to know that the desert is again showing signs of greening. That's good to know. I wonder if it's related to what's reportedly happening to the dead sea producing fresh water (although they aren't that close geographically. I'm wondering if it, too, has cycles.) Still, I have noticed a change in maps since my youth and they are fascinating, to say the least. Thanks for replying and for the video. You've given me much to ponder... and I like pondering.

[@jmanj3917]

11:03 Wow, that's pretty cool. Thanks!

[@Doug-d4u]

Very good work... very cool!

[@t-dog8528]

The clearing of trees in the Amazon and there being only sand left got me really thinking about the sahara, and when you consider the extinction of animals throughout the ages and size of some of the Anacondas in Peru it makes me wonder if there was a snake or lizard that could also fly, it makes me wonder if Dragons were actually real. I have no doubt that they and creatures like the unicorn.

[@rebeccasford]

So interesting. When I saw the shrimp, I immediately thought of the fairy shrimp at the Burn. I didn't go this year, but usually do.

[@johnlomax2502]

Anton. Why are you so brilliant?

[@marchismo8514]

The Sahara is also a a huge feeder source to the Amazon, so with a cyclical Sahara the Amazon might also experience cycles of major biome changes.

[@Pushing_Pixels]

Is it monsoons coming up from the south and reaching all the way inland? Or do the prevailing east to west winds over the desert switch directions, bringing warm, moist air from the west? If so, would that be because of changes to the AMOC, with the westerly currents moving south to the West African coast?

[@mistyninjax]

Great topic, excellent job 🎉

[@lauravillanueva2175]

I am refreshed today for this video. I appreciate Your Work Anton!"❤❤❤

[@craigsawyer6453]

Great Video!

[@anderslvolljohansen1556]

Could we geoengineer the monsoon further North and make the Sahara green again? If we inject reflective material into the air over the oceans around Southern Africa, during the Southern hemisphere winter, that would cool that region down and, I suspect, move the monsoon that gives rain to the Sahel further North. That might make the Sahel and Sahara wet season wetter. A positive feedback is that humid air is lighter than dry air. A wetter Sahara would make more humid air rise up from it and draw the monsoon further North. This scheme could also make the Southern African dry season drier, but we could compensate by making its wet season wetter, by injecting reflective material into parts of the Northern hemisphere air during the Northern hemisphere winter, which might drive the Southern African monsoon further South.