3 ms·
Something that will never cease to amaze me is how damp desert land tends to be just feet below the surface. Even months since the last rain event, I'll go dig
by pengaru 5y ago
Something that will never cease to amaze me is how damp desert land tends to be just feet below the surface. Even months since the last rain event, I'll go dig a hole on my land in the Mojave and with little effort I'm digging through sand that's damp-smelling and visibly darker and cooler from retained moisture. Return to the hole a day later and its a lighter shade of brown, all dried up from exposure.
- msandford 5y agoIn a weird way this makes sense to me. A lot of what takes water out of the ground is plants with their roots that extend way, way down. No plants means no roots and no shortcuts to get the water out. It has to go out the old fashioned way by diffusion. The thinker the dry layer the more "insulating" it is from a water diffusion standpoint. It's kind of like lake ice. The thicker it gets the slower it gets thicker.