Namib Desert

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Namib Desert

The Namib Desert is a desert

Désert

?D?sert? is ?milie Simon's debut single, released in October 2002. The song was a huge success both critically and commercially in her homeland....
in Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in southern Africa on the Atlantic Ocean coast. It shares borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east, and South Africa to the south....
and southwest Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordering Namibia to the south, Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, and Zambia to the east, and with a west coast along the Atlantic Ocean....
which forms part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park

Namib-Naukluft National Park

Namib-Naukluft National Park is an Nature reserve in the Namib Desert in southwest Africa, thought to be Earth?s oldest desert. The park is the largest game park in Africa, and a surprising collection of creatures survives in the hyper-arid region, including snakes, geckos, unusual insects, hyenas, gemsboks and jackals....
. The name "Namib" is of Nama

Nama language

The Khoekhoe language, or Khoekhoegowab, also known by the ethnic term N?m? and previously the now discouraged term Khoikhoi#Name, is the most populous and widespread of the Khoisan languages....
origin.

The desert occupies an area of around 80 900 km² (31 200 square miles), stretching about 1000 miles (1,600 km) along the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
coast of Namibia

Namibia

Angola

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The Namib Desert is a desert

Désert

?D?sert? is ?milie Simon's debut single, released in October 2002. The song was a huge success both critically and commercially in her homeland....
in Namibia

Namibia

Angola

Namib-Naukluft National Park

Nama language

Atlantic Ocean

Namibia

Angola

Physical geography

Physical geography is one of the three major subfields of geography. Physical geography focuses on understanding the processes and patterns in the natural environment, as opposed to the cultural or built environment, the domain of human geography....
provinces of the South African Platform physiographic division.

The area is considered to be one of the oldest deserts in the world, having endured arid

Arid

A region is said to be arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or even preventing the Individual growth and Morphogenesis of plant and animal life....
or semi-arid conditions for at least 55 million years after the Atacama Desert

Atacama Desert

The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in South America, covering a 966 km strip of land on the Pacific Ocean coast of South America, west of the Andes mountains....
. Its aridity is caused by the descent of dry air of the Hadley Cell

Hadley cell

The Hadley cell is a circulation pattern that dominates the tropical atmosphere, with rising motion near the equator, poleward flow 10-15 kilometers above the surface, descending motion in the subtropics, and equatorward flow near the surface....
, cooled by the cold Benguela current

Benguela Current

The frigid waters of the north-flowing Benguela current move from the western coast of South Africa, Namibia and Angola towards north and northwest up to the line where it joins the southern equatorial current which is already a warm current....
along the coast. It has less than 10 mm (0.4 inches) of rain annually and is almost completely barren.

A number of unusual species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of plant

Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
s and animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the Kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life....
s are found only in this desert. One of these is Welwitschia mirabilis, one of the most unusual species. Welwitschia is a shrub-like plant, but grows just two long strap-shaped leaves continuously throughout its lifetime. These leaves may be several meters long, gnarled and twisted from the desert winds. The taproot

Taproot

A plant's taproot is a somewhat straight tapering root that grows vertically downward. It forms a center from which other roots sprout laterally....
of the plant develops into a flat, concave disc in age. Welwitschia is notable for its survival in the extremely arid conditions in the Namib, sometimes deriving moisture from the coastal sea fogs.

Although the desert is largely unpopulated and inaccessible, there are year-round settlements at Sesriem, close to the famous Sossusvlei

Sossusvlei

Sossusvlei is a clay pan in the central Namib Desert, lying within the Namib-Naukluft National Park, Namibia. Fed by the Tsauchab River, it is known for the high, red sand dunes which surround it forming a major sand sea....
and a huge group of sand dunes, which at more than 300 meters high are among the tallest sand dunes in the world. The complexity and regularity of dune patterns in its dune sea have attracted the attention of geologist

Geologist

For other uses, see Geologist .A geologist is a contributor to the science of geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system ....
s for decades. They still remain poorly understood.

The interaction between the water-laden air coming from the sea via southerly wind

WIND

The Global Geospace Science WIND satellite is a NASA science spacecraft launched at 04:31:00 EST on November 1, 1994 from launch pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Merritt_Island%2C_Florida, Florida aboard a McDonnell Douglas Delta II 7925-10 rocket....
s, some of the strongest of any coastal desert, and the dry air of the desert causes immense fog

Fog

Fog is a cloud bank that is in contact with the ground. A cloud may be considered partly fog; for example, the part of a cloud that is suspended in the air above the ground is not considered fog, whereas the part of the cloud that comes in contact with higher ground is considered fog....
s and strong currents, causing sailors to lose their way. Along with the Skeleton Coast

Skeleton Coast

The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast....
further north, it is notorious as the site of many shipwreck

Shipwreck

A shipwreck is the remains of a ship that has wrecked, either in it having sunk or been Beaching . A shipwreck can refer to a wrecked ship or to the event that caused the wreck, such as the striking of something that causes the ship to sink, the stranding of the ship on rocks, land or shoal, or the destruction of the ship at sea by vio...
s. Some of these wrecked ships can be found as much as 50 metres inland, as the desert slowly moves westwards into the sea, reclaiming land over a period of many years.

The Namib desert is an important location for the mining of tungsten

Tungsten

Tungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element that has the symbol W and atomic number 74.A steel-gray metal, tungsten is found in several ores, including wolframite and scheelite....
, salt

Salt

A salt, in chemistry, is defined as the product formed from the neutralisation reaction of acids and base . Salts are ionic compounds composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically electric charge ....
and diamond

Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
s.

Access is by light aircraft from Windhoek

Windhoek

Windhoek is the Capital and largest city of the Republic of Namibia. It is located in the central Khomas Region, and had a population of 233,529 in the 2001 census but is now believed to be over 296,000 in 2008....
(the capital of Namibia, about 480 km north-east of the centre of the desert), Swakopmund

Swakopmund

Swakopmund City is a city on the Atlantic coast of northwestern Namibia, 280 km west of Windhoek, Namibia's capital. It is the capital of the Erongo administrative district....
and Walvis Bay

Walvis Bay

Walvis Bay , is the name of both a port in Namibia and the bay on which it lies.The bay has been a haven for sea vessels because of its natural deepwater harbour, protected by the Pelican Point sand spit, being the only natural harbour of any size along the country's coast....
at the north end of the desert, or overland on gravel roads.

Namib Desert

Gallery

See also