Kalahari Desert essays

Kalahari Desert essays Desert- an arid land mass covered with sand and thorny bush which receives less than 10 inches of rainfall per year. A desert, in my opinion, is a harsh environment that is unable to support life. So let us explore a so called desert and compare it to definition. The Kalahari is a desert located in Southern Africa, but is it a desert? It is argued that the Kalahari resembles the Sahel more so than the desert. What is the Sahel? It lies on the outer regions of desert and has more vegetation and grassy hills. In short it is land that is able to support life, mostly through various vegetation and increased rainfall. Through researching the desert it is apparent that the Kalahari is in fact not a desert by definition or by my opinion, and is known to receive up to 40 inches of rainfall per year, defying the definition of a desert. This region is home to several tribes, many species of wildlife, and various vegetation. This contradicts my opinion and the definition. Thus, the Kalahari is a life supporting environment and not an uninhabitable desert. The Kalahari Desert is large arid landmass that covers more than 190,000 square miles of Southern Africa. It spreads from the Orange River to Angola, and from Namibia in the west to Zimbabwe in the east. This desert is spread through several countries including South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana. Its landscape includes vast amounts of waterless land, red sand, sand dunes, some trees, shrubs, grasses, low hills and flats. The Kalahari has only one river as a source of water to support the life around it. This huge sand mass was created by erosion of the soft stone formations of the past . So at one point in time it can be said that the Kalahari was not a desert. Through these years of erosion it became a desert. Now, through the adaptation of vegetation (10-20,000 years ago) it has become more like a Sahel. This has allowed the Kalahari to be inhabited by various forms of li...