| BS16110493 | CHRISTICA DEIDREEN PHILIP |
| BS16110560 | NUR AINI BINTI SABRI |
| BS16110520 | AINAL FARZANAH BINTI ALIDUAN |
COMMENTATORS:
| BS13110389 | Noor Azerrah binti Hapinin |
| BS16110785 | MUHAMMAD NADZMI BIN ZAMRI |
| BS16110606 | BONIFACE BIN JOSS |
Wednesday 10 May 2017
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Boniface Joss - BS16110606
ReplyDeleteJennifer Smith, PhD, believes that the bone-dry Sahara desert we know today hides a wet , occasionally dripping-wet geologic past. In fact, there are still giant aquifers beneath the sand that hold as much fresh water as the Great Lakes. The Sahara desert is indeed a geological mystery. In order to figure out what has happened and why, Smith and her colleagues follow the trail of improbable clues that include marine fossils in the pyramids, the fossil of whales in remote wadi, the Saharan sand in deep ocean cores and paintings in the desert caves of people swimming. Using her specialty in geoarcheology, she studied the climate of North Africa during the past few hundred thousand years when the times it is seem to be alternated between savannah and desert. Her research suggest that the period humid conditions throughout the Sahara may have enabled the movement of modern humans out of Africa to Europe and Asia. In the first section of the documentary, she showed the viewers the Great Pyramid of Giza where then she showed the ancient marine fossil called nummulites meaning ‘little coin’ embedded in the blocks that make up the pyramid. Next, she showed the Wadi al-Hitan (Valley of The Whales) where the rocks are the same age as those from which the pyramid blocks were quarried. There, she also showed the fossil skeleton of a 21 foot whale. The wadi has remarkably high concentration of fossil, marine animals fossil to be precise. She deduce that there is a water deep down the Sahara desert which is called the fossil water which dated back at least 1 millions years. This is the legacy of the greener Sahara desert at least for crops.
Thank You Boniface.
DeleteA good summary for the documentary.
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ReplyDeleteMUHAMMAD NADZMI BIN ZAMRI
ReplyDeleteBS16110785
Based on video, I can summarize that the Sahara was once an ocean, mangrove swamp and fresh lake water. This is because there are fossils of sea creature, freshwater shells buried in the sands and ancient settlement with human remains. Sahara desert is the largest and hottest place on the Earth. A scientist named Jen Smith found that the blocks making the Great Pyramid most of them have marine fossils. She found numerous numbers of nummulites. These nummulites have flat disk shape and inch wide body. Nummulites also known as little coin in Latin. Nummulites also is the largest single-cell organisms. With this evidence smith’s believe that this desert once underneath the ocean. In Wadid al-Khattab she found hundreds of fossils. What is the most shocking one is she found dorudon fossils. Dorudon was the ancestor of the modern whale. With this fossils she believe that Sahara desert was ne a middle of an ocean. The she go to Wadi al-Hetan. That place has the highest concentration of the fossils. 400 fossils was recorded and almost all of them was marine fossils. She also found a fossil of baby whale there and the discovery of the rock that once a mangrove tree proves that the Wadi is the shoreline of the sea. The marine fossils found in the European and African are evidence that this ocean stretch almost halfway around the world and connect Asia to Atlantic. The ocean calls Tethys Sea and most of the Sahara submerged under it. Smith’s believe that Africa collide with Europe and the Tethys Sea recedes and whole North Africa emerged out of land. She also found a rock with mushroom shape called yardangs. With the observation to the yardangs she believe that Sahara was made 1 million ago.
NOOR AZERRAH BINTI HAPININ
ReplyDeleteBS13110389
According to the documentary video, the Sahara desert was much more than just being known as the largest desert and hottest place in this earth. Geologist, Jen Smith investigate the great pyramid. Her investigation led her to encounter several evidence that maybe a clue to uncover the truth that this Sahara desert was much wetter than be seen as today. Evidence such as fossils of sea creatures, freshwater shell, roots of mangrove trees, and yardangs proved that Sahara desert was once an ocean. But, the question is the age of the Sahara desert. The clue is the sand particles journey that carried by the wind. The riddle was solved when an ocean geologist, Peter de Menocal drills down the sediment from the ocean floor. The layers of the sediments shows that the sand particle from Sahara desert exist in the ocean floor for 3 million years. This means, 3 million years ago the Saharan swamp has turn into desert as visible today. Next, using a radar, NASA scanned the Sahara desert and successfully revealed the hidden ancient water ways criss crossing the desert. The NASA images led the researches into the northern of the desert, Tunisia. The fresh water shell prove that the area was once a freshwater lake. To be exact, three location of lake were confirmed by the presence of freshwater shells. This research is getting interesting as the presence of those shells actually proves that it used to be a lot of rain falling there. This bring us to conclusion that Sahara desert was once green and full of life. According to the research, this dramatic changes of Sahara may due to the little wobble on earth’s orbit causing the earth to tilt slightly which then cause the monsoon to shift up and pouring rain on Sahara. This phenomenon may happen again as the wobble occur every 20,000 years.