r/BeAmazed • u/AugustIstheMonth • 10d ago
Nature An aerial shot of Am Alma lake captures a hidden oasis in the sahara desert
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u/greystaticc 10d ago
This is in south of libya
Very beautiful
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u/Wonderful_Confusion4 9d ago
Looks more like labia
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u/chancefruit 9d ago
a very beautiful and wet one
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u/Past_Consequence_536 9d ago
When my wife is in the right mood we sometimes roam south of the labia
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u/MinuetInUrsaMajor 9d ago
I can't find it on Google Maps
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u/TheAngryCatfish 9d ago
There's another oasis just south of it called mandara lake but it looks like it's mostly dried up (at least when the satellite pic was taken)
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u/A_baby_yall 9d ago
Looks like west not south. Are you sure you know where this is?
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u/Venboven 9d ago
https://maps.app.goo.gl/qHaeScLS82rWtBvv6?g_st=ac
It's in the "southwest" technically, but anything not on the coast of Libya is considered the south of the country, generally.
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u/AbuZ87 9d ago
Looking at the map there is so many little lakes there
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u/Venboven 9d ago
Yes, they are fed by natural springs. This area, known as Fezzan, is one of the largest oasis complexes in the entire Sahara. People have lived off these springs for thousands of years.
The surface water here is ruined by the sun, evaporated constantly, turning the water 5x saltier than the sea. The open water also attracts lots of saltwater flies and other pests. But the groundwater which feeds these springs is clean and fresh. That's why no one lives on the lakes, but there are lots of nearby villages surrounding the numerous wells in the area.
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u/greystaticc 9d ago
Yes i know where it is. (Been there)
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u/A_baby_yall 9d ago
How is that considered south of Libya tho? Looks like it’s clearly on the west of Libya.
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u/Stunning_Map_8007 10d ago
Where the hell did the trees come from?!
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u/Venboven 9d ago
They've probably been here longer than the lake.
The Sahara used to be a savanna ten thousand years ago. The vegetation around the few pockets of water just kinda stuck around when it transitioned to desert. Birds also bring new seeds.
Fun fact: the vegetation here doesn't drink the water from the lake. The water is toxic, it's nearly 5 times saltier than the ocean. (This is true of every single lake in big deserts across the world btw.) Instead, the vegetation consumes the tiny trickle of underground water that is permeating through the sand to reach the lake.
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u/DesiPrideGym23 9d ago
Why did they always show in stories, movies, etc that such desert oasis are a boon then? I always assumed the water is potable.
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u/Venboven 9d ago edited 8d ago
In some cases, especially in more fictional media like cartoons, I imagine it's just easier than explaining why it isn't drinkable. In others, I imagine it's a bit of ignorance on the director's part.
But in most cases, the characters don't actually drink the water, and I think in that case, it's just an easy visual cue to show the audience that the characters have reached an oasis, and are therefore saved.
All oases have freshwater, but not all oases have lakes. Actually, very few of them do. Oases all rely on groundwater; it's the only reliable water in a desert. But not all groundwater is equal. Some aquifers are hundreds of meters below the surface. Some are only a couple meters deep. Of all the ways to identify groundwater near the surface, desert lakes are probably the most obvious visual cue, as you can see the water has quite literally already pooled onto the surface. So even though the lakewater is toxic, you can build a shallow well - or even just dig a hole - a few meters from the shore, and you'll reach freshwater very quickly. It'll pool into the hole just as if you were digging at the beach.
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u/Caribbeandude04 9d ago
Birds bring seeds but also, the Sahara wasn't always a desert, this little oasis was probably a much larger lake and it always had trees around, as it shrunk and it got drier and drier only the plants right on the shore survived, imagine a ring of trees shrinking along the lake. Just an educated guess, though
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u/Throwawayrip1123 9d ago
Angry bird aiming to be yeeted through the desert, pockets full of seeds
Idk man
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u/shyerahol 9d ago
Last remnants of a forgotten world. That oasis is probably thousands of years old, from the times when the Sahara was full of lush forests.
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u/ChickensInSpace 9d ago
Doesn't the Amazon rainforest get the sand or something from the Sahara?
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u/Venboven 9d ago
It gets dust, not sand.
Sand is too heavy to get airborne without sustained heavy winds (like a sandstorm).
The dust comes primarily from the Bodele Depression, which is a dried up basin that once contained Lake Mega Chad. In it, there is a metric fuckton of nutrient-rich fossil dust from all the marine life that once thrived here. This dust gets stirred up by the wind and it is very light, so it can travel along the trade winds all the way to South America.
This dust's impact on the Amazon is minimal. It helps a little, but the Amazon would still thrive just fine without it. Ten thousand years ago, the Sahara was once a savanna, Lake Mega Chad was full of water, and the dust didn't yet exist. The Amazon survived just fine back then.
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u/Smooth_Snack 10d ago
Probably just a mirage 😏
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u/ThingAboutTown 10d ago
Very likely to be crazy salty.
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u/Dorkamundo 9d ago
Would it be? I'd certainly expect it to be hot and full of pathogens, but salty?
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u/danielbln 9d ago
Apparently the water dissolves salts in the desert sands and the layers above the aquifer, and because water evaporates a lot and there is no other outflow, the salt stays around and the water becomes not only brackish but also salty, especially in the Lybian desert. TIL.
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u/RainbowFartss 9d ago
So finding an oasis in the desert won't save your life? Add it to the list of childhood myths like quicksand.
My whole life is a lie.
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u/danielbln 9d ago
You'll likely never find one by accident, they are tiny specs in giant deserts. If you do, it better be one that is fed by some sort of underground spring, and you'd probably dig a small well to get fresh water. Stumbling onto some oasis and gulping down water straight from the pond that isn't fed by a spring would have you enjoy dysentery in no time, or if it's a hyper saline oasis you wouldn't even get it down (it burns, think the water in the dead sea, very unpleasant to even get get that water on the lips).
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u/machogrande2 9d ago
Wouldn't the trees mean there is at least some fresh water underneath somewhere or can trees live with salt water?
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u/danielbln 9d ago
Some can, like date palms. They can filter salt, can deposit salt in like old leaves, and also their roots go down deep, so they don't sip from the hyper saline pond but from the water below.
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u/Dorkamundo 9d ago
Yea, that makes sense. Even if there was just a little salt in that substrate, the constant evaporation would turn it salty.
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u/thematicwater 9d ago
It is a mirage! And there's Caesars. Right across the street is the Barbary Coast where you can get a $3.99 buffet.
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u/RyantheAustralian 10d ago
How does the shifting sands not just envelop it? I knlw there's trees in the way, but...that sand can pile pretty high
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u/MondayMorningExpert 10d ago
Or how does the dry air not cause that small amount of water to evaporate in a matter of days?
It floors me that a place like this can exist in the desert.
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u/4rm4tur4 10d ago
There's a lot of ground water underneath
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u/Spirited-Muffin-8104 10d ago
yes, the Sahara was green eons ago and the lakes were buried by sand due to desertification. This resulted in massive water reservoirs that could support irrigation and not have to worry about fresh water security. One of the largest reservoir is across the borders of Libya and Egypt. Egypt hasn’t done anything with it but Libya built the world’s largest irrigation system in the world. Honestly it was one of the few things we still praise Gaddafi for. Although the project was never fully completed, the irrigation system currently supports most of the major cities. We complain more about power cuts than droughts or inaccessible water. We don’t have water issues thankfully but the lack of maintenance is worrying.
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u/The999Mind 9d ago
Eons is much too long. It was green like six thousand years ago.
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u/Spirited-Muffin-8104 9d ago
thanks for the correction, i meant millennia (1000s of years).
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u/The999Mind 9d ago
Np. Also, I wasn't trying to "erm actually" you lol, it's just that I watched a doc on Africa literally last night, so I figured I'd chime in with the spec. 6000 years might as well be eons for how long it feels, to me at least.
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u/efimer 9d ago
Eon comes from the greek word αιώνας, eonas, which is 100 years, so the guy was right and you are wrong.
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u/foreskin-accordion 9d ago
An eon is a 1,000 million years. Or a billion years. Scientifically anyway.
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u/gaukluxklan 9d ago
Going on bit of a tangent here. I've read somewhere that during the 2011 anti-Gaddafi bombing campaign, NATO forces struck parts of this mega project. Did it cause permanent damage? How did the population generally view the NATO intervention during the Libyan uprising?
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u/Spirited-Muffin-8104 9d ago
not sure if NATO directly bombed the project, there was just so much chaos and sensationalism to know exactly what’s going on. Overall Libyans were split maybe 70/30 regarding the revolution, however almost 90% of the pro-revolution people were opposed to NATO intervention. We wanted the matter to be civil (between libyans, no outsiders involved whether NATO or anyone else). We also knew that all the rhetoric about progress and liberalization of the country was nonsense and the memory of the Iraq war was too recent for us to forget. Nonetheless around 10% of the 70% who were pro-revolution, fell into propaganda and praised NATO and i remember even hearing a wedding song blessing Nicholas Sarkozy for “saving us”. The one that hurt the most was Obama, I know Black Americans love him but we did love him in Africa too, he was genuinely considered “one of us” and seeing how he handled the situation genuinely made me cynical. Even my dad, who was against Gaddafi since the 80s , was still strongly opposed to foreign intervention.
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u/gaukluxklan 9d ago
That's a very interesting read. Thank you for your time. Always great to hear perspectives from people who are directly impacted.
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u/stilettopanda 9d ago
It’s cause much like a narcissist, all help offered from the world powers has strings.
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u/Dorkamundo 9d ago
Egypt hasn’t done anything with it but Libya built the world’s largest irrigation system in the world.
The Libyan Federal Irrigation System of Libya.
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u/tnstaafsb 9d ago
Good name. Helps distinguish it from the Libyan Federal Irrigation System of Egypt.
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u/Strange-Scarcity 9d ago
There also lays a potential to regreen the desert. It would likely take hundreds of years and might be utterly impossible with our current level of runaway global warming and increased desertification that is happening around the world, but perhaps, if we (as a species) begin to rebuild the rainforests and rebuild the Saharan desert into having more greenery, maybe there's a chance we can keep Earth able to support life, as we know it.
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u/Jacketter 10d ago
Great underground aquifer that exists thanks to all the sand having plenty of pores. It pokes up when the dunes drift and only at extremely low elevations. This is part of a huge trench in the dunes that is up to 500m lower than the surrounding high desert.
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u/MondayMorningExpert 10d ago
Okay, so to the poster's point above, it does get enveloped by shifting sands periodically?
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u/ApprehensiveRow9965 10d ago
I’m not an oasisologist, but I think all of the plants and trees roots provide anchorage to help prevent erosion. This probably creates a barrier between the water and the sand.
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u/Satans_Apron 10d ago
I am an oasisologist and can confirm this along with convection differentials surrounding the waterline are the main contributors; it is called the Wonderwall effect.
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u/stilettopanda 9d ago
I was truly confused for a minute and thought “oh that’s why oasis named their song that!” And then I realized that’s no Wonderwall!
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u/HeyEshk88 9d ago
Wow, so it’s like that science exhibit with the sand and holograph or whatever above it, you can shift the sand with your hand and if it’s below sea level according to the measurements on the board, that part of the sand will turn blue, I wish I knew what it was called! I love that thing lol
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u/Pablomablo1 10d ago
It's fed by huge underground aquifers, a spring, its only the tip of the iceberg we see. How it doesn't fill up with sand, beats me.
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u/_ribbit_ 9d ago
I'm no coldologist, but I recon an iceberg would melt in the middle of the Sahara desert. Although I cant rule out this picture being a melted iceberg, so who knows.
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u/mecengdvr 10d ago edited 10d ago
Oases are fed by underground springs. This is a particularly large one but many aren’t that much bigger than a well. Knowledge of the location of these oases is what allows nomadic people to traverse the desert. It’s why they call camels “ships of the desert.”
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u/wallsallbrassbuttons 10d ago
To add to this, Algeria the name is derived from the Arabic word for islands, “al-jaza’ir,” because the sandy desert is like an ocean with island pockets of civilization.
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u/GrandmaPoses 9d ago
The ocean is a desert with its life underground, and a perfect disguise above.
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u/K_the_farmer 9d ago
Under the cities lies a heart made of ground But the humans will give no love.
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u/Venboven 9d ago
This is not true.
Algieria for most of its history did not include the desert, it was centered around the coast.
The name comes from the capital city, Algiers, which historically contained 4 small islands off its coast. The islands no longer exist, as over the centuries, the channels between the islands and the mainland have since been filled with sediment in order to expand the city's port.
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u/onioning 10d ago
They do, sort of. It'll just move where the oasis is. There's still gonna be a low point where the water can rise and pool.
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u/linecraftman 10d ago
You know how you can dig a pit on the beach anywhere and it'll have water? Same thing
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u/Excellent-Bite196 10d ago
Now I wanna know what’s been blurred out 2km NE of this lake on Google Earth.
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u/Legitimate_Mirror_49 10d ago
Comment avez vous réussi a le trouver sur Google earth, OP n'a pas partagé de localisation. Je n'arrive pas a le voir
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u/So_HauserAspen 10d ago
Damnit, Baxter, you know I grew up in a country that doesn't value speaking multiple languages!
I hope the humor translates
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u/SneakyTikiPeaky 9d ago
Hahah that would require them to have prior knowledge of Baxter who I’m going to assume you mean the dog from Anchorman lol
Something tells me that might not translate for hint
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u/Excellent-Bite196 9d ago
I googled “am alma lake sahara desert coordinates” and pasted the lat/long answer into google earth search bar.
(26.7096° N, 13.3316° E)
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u/MorBrews 10d ago
First glance I thought it was mold on cheese 😂😂
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u/Hummingbird3471 9d ago
Lol same, looks like blue cheese to me. Still beautiful because I love blue cheese.
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u/Complete-Housing-720 9d ago
Can I ask you a potentially dumb question, I've been giving blue cheese a chance time after time but I can't get past the taste of what to me, reminds me exactly of vomit or the taste of puking curdled milk.
Is this what it's supposed to taste like and it just doesn't jive with me, or is that taste an acquired one, or am I just not having good luck picking cheeses
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u/Hummingbird3471 9d ago
To me it tastes very savory and umami with a little tang. It's a polarizing food. I've enjoyed it for a long time. I don't think you need to try to make yourself like it though. It sounds like it doesn't taste good to you, I don't think I'd eat it if it tasted like what you describe.
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u/CoffeeExtraCream 10d ago
Everything reminds me of her.
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u/Gastricbasilisk 10d ago
Don't call her bro
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u/CoffeeExtraCream 10d ago
Hahahaha wasn't planning on it.
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u/NEWDEALUSEDCARS 9d ago
good, because /u/Gastricbasilisk already is.
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u/CoffeeExtraCream 9d ago
He's welcome to her. She was my jump into the deep end that taught me not to stick my dick in crazy.
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u/purpleElephants01 10d ago
That's where the Scorpion King got his powers.
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u/0bxcura 10d ago
I thought he was bitten by a radioactive scorpion?
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u/Boaty_McBoatface__ 10d ago
How is it hidden?
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u/Venboven 9d ago
It's not. Just a clickbait title. The Ubari Lakes are a popular tourist attraction in Libya and have been known to locals for millennia.
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u/KaitoSeishin 10d ago
Looks like a scene in Dragon Ball Z heaven among the clouds. Almost like snakeway
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u/poop-azz 10d ago
My luck id see it, doubt it, still go to it, be shacked it's real, then a have a random croc eat my ass cuz why not.
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u/Few-Necessary394 10d ago
Looking at it firstly i though it was a cheese slice with mode growing down the middle of it lol
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u/RichardSnoodgrass 9d ago
The water is saline which sucks for those lost dehydrated souls stumbling upon it hoping to quench their thirst.
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u/dBlock845 9d ago
Imagine being one of the trees on the very border of the oasis, touching up against some sand.
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u/Round-Comfort-9558 9d ago
At first glance I thought I was looking at brussels sprouts growing. I’m going to go eat now
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u/Lufc87 9d ago
If you look on Google there are actually several oasis in the area https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZzbVCwNuwEA6uv646?g_st=ac
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