Lake Eyre to flood.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology is reporting that flooding is occurring across Australia’s Queenland. The rivers that drain into the inland Lake Eyre are experiencing flooding, the rivers include; Thomson, Barcoo, and Cooper creeks.

THOMSON RIVER:

Minor flooding is easing in the Thomson River at Camoola Park, with rises and moderate flooding occurring downstream at Longreach. Minor to moderate flooding is rising downstream between Stonehenge and Jundah.

BARCOO RIVER:

Moderate flooding continues in the Alice River at Barcaldine. Minor flooding is easing in the upper Barcoo River at Blackall. River rises and major flooding is occurring along the lower Barcoo River between Coolagh and Oma where levels should peak in the next few days. Moderate to major flooding continues between Wahroongha and Retreat, with further rises expected into next week. At 9am Thursday, the river level at Retreat was 6.48 metres, which is about 4.3 metres above the Barcoo River Causeway.

COOPER CREEK:Youtube documentary

Moderate flooding is rising in the Cooper Creek at Windorah with a return to major flood levels expected in the next few days. At 3pm Thursday the creek level was 4.84 metres, which was about 0.54 metres above the level of the approaches to the Diamantina Development Road. Moderate flooding is easing downstream at Durham Downs however renewed rises and moderate flooding is expected later next week as upstream floodwaters from the Windorah area arrive.

The Lake Eyre Basin (LEB) is an unregulated system, with streamflows in the Basin being highly
variable (Puckridge et al., 1998; Knighton and Nanson, 2001). During large flood events, the LEB
rivers transform from a string of waterholes into slow moving, “inland seas” that can be as much as 60 km wide in their mid to lower reaches. Floods in these rivers are generated from rain in the upper reaches and can take months to travel to terminal wetlands or the ultimate Basin terminus of Lake Eyre North. The rivers and creeks in the region are intermittent to ephemeral, and only flow following rain periods.

Many reaches of the LEB rivers have complex flow paths with extensive
anastomosing channel systems (that is the channels bifurcate, branch and then rejoin irregularly) with greatly varying widths of active channel and floodplain. During large flood events, floodwaters can inundate thousands of square kilometres. Within the anastomosing channel system there is a complex array of waterholes, wetlands, channels and floodplains, which result in only a very small proportion of the regional rainfall arriving at Lake Eyre.

The rivers of the LEB have high ecological value and are amongst the last of the unregulated large rivers in Australia. The rivers are the foci for spectacular booms and busts in animal populations. During large flood events they support large populations of fish (Puckridge et al., 2000) and waterbirds (Kingsford, 1995; Kingsford et al., 1999) with population numbers crashing as flow ceases and surface water contracts back to the more persistent waterholes and wetlands.

Although cattle grazing, tourism and, locally, natural gas production, have had some impact on the landscape, the catchments supplying Lake Eyre are considered to be in minimally disturbed
condition. The LEB is considered significant as a result of the unusual features of the area, which
include (Morton et al., 1995):


Lake Eyre, the terminus of the Basin, is located in north-east South Australia. The lake is the fifth largest terminal lake in the world, consisting of two sections: Lake Eyre North and Lake Eyre South. The total surface area of the lake is approximately 9,690 km2, supporting a volume of 30.1 km3 (3.01x104 GL) at -9.5 AHD (see Figure 2-1; International Lake Environment Committee, undated). Originally, it was believed by European settlers that Lake Eyre North was permanently dry, however this was disproved in 1949, the first scientifically recorded filling of the lake. Since this time, numerous inflow events into Lake Eyre have been recorded, including a significant filling event that lasted several years in the mid 1970s.


Lake Eyre South is known to have filled in 1938, 1955, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and
1984. In 1984 Lake Eyre South overflowed to Lake Eyre North (Hutton, 1984). In 1974 water
flowed from Lake Eyre North to Lake Eyre South between March and October when an
equilibrium level was obtained. Groyder Channel is a 15km channel that links Lake Eyre North and South. The width and bottom elevation of the channel change with each significant event.
Lake Eyre itself supports a range of flora and fauna, including emerged and submerged
macrophytes, zooplankton, algae and fish.

Ref: http://www.lebmf.gov.au/publications/pubs/hydrology.pdf

A snipet from other areas, dealing with "Cultural Memories" within the New World

This is just a snipet of a larger article, http://firstnationschools.ca/node/157.

Native American Oral Traditions & Archaelogical Myths

Sun, 11/20/2005 - 07:21 | by Admin

http://nativehistory.tripod.com/id15.html

While Pendergast and Meighan have clearly proven oral traditions can span hundreds of years, W.D. Strong has proven they can span thousands of years. In 1934, Strong published a convincing article detailing the Native American knowledge of the wooly mammoth. The Naskapi describe a monster they call Kátcheetokúskw (present in many of their myths) as being very large, having a big head, large ears and teeth, and a long nose with which he hit people. When presented with photos of modern elephants, the informants said they fit the description of Kátcheetokúskw as represented in their oral history. The Penobscot of Maine describe a huge animal with long teeth that leaned against certain trees to sleep (noting that when these beasts lay down, they could not get back up). The Ojibwa and Iroquois note the existence of a large beast that once ranged through the forest and was so strong that it would easily knock down any trees that stood in it's path. These "elephant" legends are rampant in many other Indigenous cultures such as the Micmac, Alabama, Koasati, and Chitimacha. (19)

In the article, Strong anticipates the onslaught of conservative anthropologists and in his concluding argument complains that, "To date, paleontologists have seemed more willing to grant recency to the mammoth than have the majority of American anthropologists to grant any geological antiquity to the American Indian." (20)

Strong's insights are very revealing as it is apparent that the rift between the Bering Strait theorists and the opposition was in place by the early date of 1934. More importantly however, if Native Americans have preserved accurate descriptions of the mammoth, they must represent an oral history going back thousands of years. In 1944, M.F. Ashley Montagu confirmed Strong's finding in an article published in American Anthropologist. The Osage of Missouri persevered a record of an incident that involved the encroachment of a herd of megafauna upon the land of the smaller animals already living there. The Osage of course incorporate supernatural beings into their account and attribute the encounter to the actions of the Great Spirit. At a certain period, many monstrous animals encroached upon the territory (along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers) of the much smaller animals already living there. The Osage were forced to abandon their homes and refrain from hunting because the gigantic animals posed a deadly threat. They remained at a sufficient distance however to witness the courageous smaller animals attack the invading monstrous animals. After a long battle, the larger animals prevailed and continued their march eastward. The Osage then burnt some of the bodies as an offering to the Great Spirit while the rest were buried in the Pomme de Terre (which was later called Big Bone river). The Osage considered this to be a sacred place thereafter and subsequently gave offerings periodically to commemorate the battle. In 1839, American settlers seized the sacred land to the great dismay of the Osage and began the construction of a tub-mill (a machine used to pound corn). After digging, the settlers discovered a mass of bones, which were identified as those of young mastodons. (21)

The fact that the Osage story correlated precisely with the findings made by the settlers is adequate evidence that the oral history of Native peoples goes back into deep time. It can thus be concluded that Native American oral history is very ancient indeed

19. W.D. Strong. "North American Indian Traditions Suggesting a Knowledge of the Mammoth." American Anthropologist 36 (1934): 81-88. Pages 81-87.

20. Ibid., Page 88.

21. M.F. Ashley Montagu. "An Indian Tradition Relating to the Mastodon." American Anthropologist 46 (1944): 568-71. Pages 568-71

Thoughts on Terraforming Venus or Mars.

Figure 1: Left: Earth with oceans and atmosphere represented as spheres (Ice-blue, atmosphere; Cyan-blue, water/oceans). Right Center: Venus with atmosphere; Far Right: Ceres compared to Earth and Venus in 50 kilometers per pixel.

In the above image, on the left, the radius of Earth = 6378000 m so volume of Earth = 1.08678129 × 10^21 m^3. Average depth of ocean over 3/4 of Earth's surface = 3800 m so it over the whole surface it would form a hollow sphere 2850 m thick. Subtract Earth's volume from that of the larger sphere to get a volume for the water of 1.45753101 × 10^18 m^3. The radius of a sphere of that volume would be 703358 m, a little over 1/10th the radius of the planet, and represented by the clear cyan blue sphere. The adjacent ice-blue sphere represents the volume of the atmosphere. The Hydrosphere is the layer of water which covers about 71% of the earth's surface. The average depth of the oceans is 3794 m (12,447 ft), more than five times the average height of the continents. The mass of the oceans is approximately 1.35 quintillion (1.35 × 10^18) metric tons.

The center right image is that of Venus, that was taken by the European Space Agency orbiter Venus Express. With Earth and Venus approximately the same size, and having formed at the same time, astronomers believe that both planets likely began with similar amounts of water due to comets during the Late Heavy Bombardment that ended 3.9 Billion years ago. However, Anabar (2009) et.al, page 4, indicates: “by contrast there appear to be no surfaces on Venus that date back to the early bombardment.” The presentation of Sizemore (2004) that “Venus has undergone a catastrophic, global resurfacing event in recent geological history” that apparently “ended 700-800 Million years ago” and due to a global recycling of the planetary crust because of volcanism.

Despite Venus being called Earth's "twin", its surface conditions are far from being alike to our home planet's. Venus's surface is surrounded by a thick mass of clouds. The atmosphere of Venus is heavier than the atmosphere of any other planet. It is made up of carbon dioxide, small amounts of nitrogen and water vapor, and very little portions of argon, neon, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide. The atmospheric pressure on Venus is about ninety times more than it is on Earth. It is about 1,323 pounds per square inch. If one were to stand on Venus, the atmospheric pressure would crush you within seconds. The surface of Venus is very hot and dry. Moreover, there is no liquid water because it would boil away from the heat. Most of Venus (65%) is covered by flat plains, where there are thousands of volcanoes. Thirty-five percent of Venus is made up of mountains. The highest is Maxwell, which is seven miles high. There is also a canyon that is .6 of a mile deep. Another feature of Venus is impact craters, which are formed from an asteroid and a planet crashing. There are two large highland areas: Ishtar Terra and Aphrodite Terra. Coronae, another characteristic of Venus, are circular volcanic structures surrounded by ridges, grooves, and lines. Arachnoids are another unique feature to Venus. Arachnoids are circular and oval features with concentric rings and a group of fractures

As Venus and the Earth are comparable in size, the inclusion of the atmosphere within the image would be representative of the Earth with an atmosphere (which is confined in the ice-blue sphere on the left side of the image and above the Earth). Directly to the right of Venus, the grey sphere represents Ceres. The Planetary Society presents a topic on Ceres and the aspects of a potential “ocean” by stating:

Exactly where the layers lie inside Ceres depends on how much ice it contains, which depends on how dense its rocky component is. If Ceres is less icy, it has a relatively thin water ice layer of about 70 kilometers (45 miles) in thickness; if Ceres is more icy, its ice layer would be about 120 kilometers (75 miles) thick.

There is an excellent image of Venus with oceans that was created by in Australia with a few interesting concepts of how the planet might look.

It is widely accepted that the current dryness of the Venus atmosphere is the result of extensive evolutionary processes. The amount of carbon in the form of CO₂ in the Venusian atmosphere is comparable to the best estimates of the Earth’s carbon inventory, which is largely locked up in carbonate rocks. This finding suggests that a “runaway” greenhouse scenario led to the lack of plate tectonics and biogeochemical cycling on Venus. According to this hypothesis, the primordial inventories of volatile elements on Venus and the Earth were similar (on a mass-adjusted basis); the present differences in distribution between atmosphere and lithosphere are evolved.

If so, the extreme scarcity of H₂O in Venus’ atmosphere could be a consequence of photolysis of primordial H₂O followed by loss of H to space, possibly within the first billion years. The high D/H ratio of the Venus atmosphere supports this hypothesis, but this interpretation is complicated by the fact that volatiles can be accreted long after formation – even in the geologically recent past – in the form of cometary impacts, and by uncertainties in the D and H escape fluxes. Hence, the D/H observations could alternatively be a result of H₂O escape and resupply in the last billion years.

Since the average depth of the oceans is 3794 m (12,447 ft) on the Earth, roughly equivalent to 2.4 miles deep. The water layer proposed for Ceres, while smaller in circumference, is many miles thicker. The total volume of water on Earth is about 1.4 billion cubic kilometers, around 41 million of which is fresh water. If Ceres' mantle accounts for 25 percent of the asteroid's mass, that would translate to an upper limit of 200 million cubic kilometers of water.

If Ceres could eventually be destabilized from the current orbit and impact Venus, the resulting ocean depth would range 1/7 of that on the Earth or 542 m. Unfortunately, due to the pressure and the temperatures the water would become vapor and would remain in the upper atmosphere and then the hydrogen would be stripped by the solar wind and lost to space.

It would take approximately 10-20 Ceres size objects diverted to Venus to recreate enough water vapor in the atmosphere before atmospheric destabilization occurred with rain starting to fall on the high upland mountains. If smaller comets were diverted or Kuipler Belt objects were brought into the inner solar system, then a much larger number >10,000 would be required. A series of impacts, might assist in the removal of a significant part of the current atmosphere by blasting it into space. This would facilitate lower atmospheric pressures from the current atmosphere pressure to a lower.

NOTE: The future is a unknown progression of humanity and development of technology and innovations, maybe over the next 900 years humanity might decide that Terra-forming could occur. How orbital dynamics of Ceres could be change and the technology involved is the decisions of the future generations of humanity. Maybe, Ceres could impact Mars, given the amount of water that exist on Mars and on Ceres a planetary impact would create something on the order of magnitude of a Hellas Impact basin and liberate the water from both Mars or Ceres to form a northern ocean. With terrain being ejected material from the impact event and that might create enough heat to start the convection within the mantel and subsequent magnetosphere on Mars. This is a thought exercise and conceptual idea, a seed in the garden for the future generations of humanity and the unknown technologies that occurs hereafter.

Bibliography

Anbar, A. D. (2009) et. al. Astrobiology Research Priorities for Mercury, Venus, Earth, and the Moon. A White Paper for the 2009-2011 Planetary Science Decadel Survey . Arizona State University.

The Mythological Phoenix...

Chinese researchers store data in bacteria

Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong have successfully shown how to store encrypted data in bacteria. A colony of E.coli was used for the experiment, with the equivalent of the United States Declaration of Independence stored in the DNA of eighteen bacterial cells. As 10 million cells are present in one gram of biological material, this would translate to a data storage capacity of 90GB.

Data can also be encrypted thanks to the natural process of site-specific genetic recombination. Information is scrambled by recombinase genes, the actions of which are controlled by a transcription factor.

The method has some flaws, however, as an expensive sequencer is needed to retrieve data, with the process described as tedious as well. What's more, toxic DNA usually found in stored sequences will mutate and remove the toxic sequences, taking some of the data with it.

Only copyright information can be stored in genetically engineered organisms thus far. Bacteria has the potential to be more resilient to keeping data storage than traditional, electronic means. Deinococcus radiodurans bacterium, for example, can withstand electromagnetic pulses and a radiation from a nuclear fallout

Read more: http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/12/22/chinese.researchers.store.data.in.bacteria#ixzz18zE4vvNA

Think of the Sci-fi aspects of this. Instead of someday sending people into interstellar space to the Stars. Why not program certain bacteria strains to allow evolution to occur on other worlds where the data of stored human DNA sequence...s would interact with the DNA of the bacteria. There was a similar concept in Star Trek the Next Generation where a prior existing species had modified the bacteria and cast them adrift in the Nebula Clouds---the the Offspring the the Alpha Species included all the major known species of Star Trek; human, Klingon, Cardasian, Romulan, Vulcan, and even Beta-Zoids.

With bacteria programmed or altered in some way like this, it would give an entire new meaning to Panspermia or the possibility. If not bacteria, then nanotechnology that has merged with biological sciences. The decedents of Humans, in the science fictional aspects could arise anew out of the ashes of their existence on countless worlds--A mythical Phoenix. In a variety of forms and designs that were independently evolutionary events on 1,000 future worlds.

It is mindboggling if it came into full reality, who knows what 100 years will bring forth. Conceptual designs--sketches of thoughts.

How many light years distance is that bubble after image?

(image credit: Roger Penrose and Vahe Gurzadyan. Researchers think concentric ring patterns in measurements of the cosmic microwave background are evidence of a universe that existed before our own Universe was born in the Big Bang).

In the initial article a discussion about the existence of multiple universe occurs.

The article states
"When our bubble expanded during inflation, it might have collided with another bubble"


Isn't this agreeing with the multi-universe theory and idea? If a Universe happens to generate a bubble, think about a balloon that is twisted at some point, and that second bubble universe dis attaches and drifts completely separate from the original structure. Now if the original universe has expanded and then a big crunch occurs and a new universe is thus formed; inflation occurs.

What if in the process of inflation that the new Universe collides with the small 'daughter Universe bubble' cause it to disintegrate. Wouldn't that create the ring-like structure that is apparently many light years in radius and diameter, as they show in the image? What would cause the secondary ring-like structure. What if the 'daughter-Universe' is compressed by the inflation and for a brief moment an equilibrium occurs between the membranes. Think of a balloon that is inside of another balloon, for example. As this equilibrium occurs, it imprints upon the larger bubble Universe, in the micro radiation aspects, and then it disintegrates.

If there is a further ring-like structure, then maybe that is the central black hole or where various black holes merge together with the disintegration of the 'daughter or baby Universe" Being the physic's might be different in the 'daughter or baby Universe' upon the collapse or disintegration...everything that exist within it...planets, stars, moons, solar systems, galaxies...undergo a rapid disintegration or complete meltdown into apparent nothingness or are phase shifted in a way that they exist as dark energy or dark matter.


Have you ever seen a large bubble surrounded by smaller bubbles and then the large one 'pops' leaving a ring of the smaller bubbles that move away because they are on the surface of a liquid. Think about the small foam bubbles on a cup of coffee, they move outward from the center to the edge of the coffee cup where they clump along the side. Yet in different clumps. What would happen if a larger bubble were to form and 'pull them back inside the bubble'; some of them would be destroyed in the process or be propelled over the surface of the bubble by the hydrophobic interactions.

In a Universe that is 93 Billion light years across and nearly 14 billion years old, how many light years across would a secondary bubble or 'daughter Universe' be if it was generated by a prior existing Universe in a Multi-universe? Does the ring-like image, above, represent something that is 20 million or billion light years across?

What size in space are these phased 'ghostly images'? Are the regions where they exist composed of dark energy or dark matter concentrations? Or concentrations of knots of dark energy, that would almost be twisted or even entangled like filaments or threads?

Not that bubbles don't exist in space, as this is a bubble that is obeying the physic's within this Universe and eventually it will disintegrate.

Maybe a Physicist or Astronomer would know. Either way, it is interesting to just think about what they could represent or the size they represent. Intuition doesn't know, sketches of thoughts... Well, now off to Target to do some Christmas card shopping.

Where is the oil

Ibrahim Nashawi and colleagues point out that rapid growth in global oil consumption has sparked a growing interest in predicting "peak oil" -- the point where oil production reaches a maximum and then declines. Scientists have developed several models to forecast this point, and some put the date at 2020 or later. One of the most famous forecast models, called the Hubbert model, accurately predicted that oil production would peak in the United States in 1970. The model has since gained in popularity and has been used to forecast oil production worldwide. However, recent studies show that the model is insufficient to account for more complex oil production cycles of some countries. Those cycles can be heavily influenced by technology changes, politics, and other factors, the scientists say.

The new study describe development of a new version of the Hubbert model that accounts for these individual production trends to provide a more realistic and accurate oil production forecast. Using the new model, the scientists evaluated the oil production trends of 47 major oil-producing countries, which supply most of the world's conventional crude oil. They estimated that worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014, years earlier than anticipated. The scientists also showed that the world's oil reserves are being depleted at a rate of 2.1 percent a year.

American Chemical Society (2010, March 11). World crude oil production may peak a decade earlier than some predict. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 12, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/03/100310134255.htm

"Alien Life" from Mono Lake, California

In chemistry 101 and 102 even at the High School level, one is introduced to the Chart of Elements. We learn about electrons, protons, neutrons and all those orbital shells.

Organic life, is based upon Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Helium, Phosphorous and a smigging of the other elements. It is what makes DNA and RNA nucleotide bases.

Alien life, could include Silicon, as a replacement for the Carbon.

Or was it allowing the microbes to evolve to utilize the arsenic? If life as we know it is carbon based and then silicon based life form could possibly exist....what about replacements within the DNA strand for the other elements?

and or the nucleotide bases? If "Alien life" exists even a secondary and unique evolution of life on Mars, then how could the DNA or nucleotide bases have unique variations to actually be deemed "Alien life"? One cannot take a mouse an...d expect it to radically change the DNA and nucleotide sequences to find out if it would be an alien life form.

However, a terrestial microbe could be coaxed into possible modifications given limiting factors, i.e., replacement of the Phosphorus with arsenic to see if it survives--and in the collection of this microbe that currently exist in an area where high concentrations of arsenic exist. Then what is causing it to exist naturally within the environment? There isn't a perilous contention in allow the microbe to exist and observe multi-generations in a more harsh environment surrounded by arsenic. The microbe and the descending populations over time show evolution occurring, at a basic level. Darwinian Finch's and the changes from an initial founding population.

This is only getting popular press because the prospect of "Aliens" as compared to an argument over evolution. Shine the light where it resides. Evolution in action!

Yet, Aliens makes a more interesting story than Evolution.

The Ancient Lakes of the Saraha

The Sahara has not always been the arid, inhospitable place that it is today – it was once a savannah teeming with life, according to researchers at the Universities of Reading and Leicester.

Eight years of studies in the Libyan Desert area of Fazzan, now one of the harshest, most inaccessible spots on Earth, have revealed swings in its climate that have caused considerably wetter periods, lasting for thousands of years, when the desert turned to savannah and lakes provided water for people and animals.

This, in turn, has given us vital clues about the history of humans in the area and how these ancient inhabitants coped with climate change as the land began to dry up around them again.

In their article ‘Ancient lakes of the Sahara’, which appears in the January-February issue of American Scientist magazine, Dr Kevin White of the University of Reading and Professor David Mattingly of the University of Leicester explain how they used satellite technology and archaeological evidence to reveal new clues about both the past environment of the Sahara and of human prehistory in the area.

“The climate of the Sahara has been highly variable over the millennia and we have been able to provide much more specific dating of these changes,” said Dr White. “Over the last 10,000 years, there have been two distinct humid phases, separated by an interval of highly variable but generally drying conditions between roughly 8,000 and 7,000 years ago. Another drying trend took place after about 5,000 years ago, leading to today’s parched environment.”

The researchers determined where surface water was once present by using radar images of the desert taken from space. These images showed rivers, lakes and springs now buried below shifting sand dunes. As these bodies dried out thousands of years ago, the resulting mineral deposits cemented the lake sediments together and these hardened layers are detectable by using radar images.

“This information was essential because archaeologists need to focus their efforts near ancient rivers, lakes and springs, where people used to congregate due to their basic need for water,” said Dr White. “We found large quantities of stone tools around the ancient water sources, indicating at least two separate phases of human occupation.”

The earliest humans in the area were Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, who lived in the Fazzan between about 400,000 and 70,000 years ago. They survived by hunting large and small game in a landscape that was considerably wetter and greener than it is now. A prolonged arid phase from about 70,000 to 12,000 years ago apparently drove humans out of the region, but then the rains returned – along with the people.

Around 5,000 years ago, the climate began to dry out again, but this time people adapted by developing an agricultural civilization with towns and villages based around oases. This process culminated with the emergence of the Garamantian society in the first millennium BC.

Professor Mattingly said: “We have been given a completely new view of this elusive and remarkable society. The Garamantes were known to the ancient Romans as a race of desert warriors, but archaeology has shown they had agriculture, cities and a phenomenally advanced system of water extraction that kept their civilization going for 1,000 years as the land was drying up around them.”

They cultivated a variety of high-grade cereals, such as wheat and barley, and other crops such as date palms, vines, olives, cotton, vegetables and pulses.

As the Saharan climate began to dry out they drew their water from a large subterranean aquifer (an underground bed of rock that yields water) and transported it through a network of tunnels.

“The fact that the Garamantes developed this ingenious irrigation system shows that our ability to apply engineering solutions to deal with climate change is by no means only a modern phenomenon,” said Dr White. “The gradual drying up of springs and desiccation of the surrounding landscape must have seemed ominous, but they knew they had to develop sophisticated methods to cope with it.

“But even this remarkably adaptable society – one of the first urban civilizations built in a desert – could not cope forever with a falling water table and intensifying aridity. Sometime around 500AD, the Garamantian society collapsed and their irrigation system fell into disuse.”

Associated with this research, Reading’s School of Human and Environmental Sciences, in collaboration with the Department of Meteorology, are undertaking a major project, linking climate, water and civilization in the Middle East and North Africa, with a £1,240,000 grant from the Leverhulme Trust.

Dr Kevin White Further information: www.reading.ac.uk

www.americanscientist.org

The Ancient Lakes of the Saraha