Study finds evidence the Sahara desert is twice as old as assumed, formed when an ancient sea started to shrink

Sep 19, 2014 22:03 GMT  ·  By
It is possible that the Sahara desert formed 7 million years ago, researchers say
   It is possible that the Sahara desert formed 7 million years ago, researchers say

Having run and analyzed several climate simulations, researchers found that northern Africa's Sahara desert could be much older than previously assumed.

Thus, in a recent paper in the journal Nature, the scientists behind this research project argue that, according to evidence at hand, it could be that the Sahara desert has been around for nearly 7 million years now.

What's more, the researchers say that this extremely dry patch of land in northern Africa probably came into being when an ancient sea dubbed the Tethys Sea started to shrink.

In their paper in the journal Nature, paleoclimatologist Zhongshi Zhang and fellow researchers detail that, as shown by the climate simulations they studied, the shrinking of the Tethys Sea would have caused a change in local climate.

Specifically, the scientists say that the shrinking of this body of water, together with the uplift of the Arabian peninsula, might have caused the African summer monsoon to weaken. As a result, northern Africa could have become a very dry place.

Not at all surprisingly, some are not buying this explanation for the formation of the Sahara desert. Thus, Stefan Kröpelin with Germany's University of Cologne says that there is no geological evidence to back up this theory.

“Nothing you can find in the Sahara is older than 500,000 years, and in terms of Saharan climate even our knowledge of the past 10,000 is full of gaps,” this researcher told the press in an interview.