Comment: 25:45 - 26:48 (01:03)
Source: Annenberg/CPB Resources - Earth Revealed - 22. Wind, Dust and Deserts
Keywords: "James Sadd", desert, humans, life, dune, playa, salt, sand, "desert varnish", environment, landform, climate, lake, grassland, forest
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Our transcription: There's more to the desert than geologic processes.
Deserts have a surreal quality that has captured the human imagination throughout the ages.
Perhaps this is because deserts of places of extreme, of contrast.
This stark seemingly lifeless expanse of bare rock and sand is actually home to a rich assemblage of life forms.
The blinding white of dune sand and playa salt, stands in sharp contrast to rock surfaces blackened by desert varnish.
The searing hot desert day is followed by the refreshingly cool, sometimes frigid desert night.
But in spite of the fact that the desert is a harsh environment, it's also a fragile one.
It deserves our respect.
But in return, we and those who follow us can continue to enjoy beckoning vistas, its clean and rugged beauty, and its diverse assemblage of life forms and land forms.
Until the climate pendulum swings back and transforms the desert to lake, or grassland, or forest once again.
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Geology School Keywords
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