The image shows the Namib Naukluft Park in western Namibia. The National Park includes part of the Namib – the world’s oldest desert. It is the largest wild animal park in Africa and the fourth largest in the world. When visiting the park, you can observe wild animals such as snakes, geckos, hyenas and jackals which can survive in this particularly dry part of our planet Earth. This life in the desert is only made possible by the fact that winds coming from the west carry fog from the Atlantic Ocean inland, providing those highly specialized animals and plants with just enough humidity to survive.
The winds do not only bring fog but they also form large sand dunes visible in the centre of the image. Their bright orange colour is generated by a reaction of the iron in the sand with the oxygen in the air. It is the same reaction as rust building on a car or train tracks. You can determine the age of the dunes based on their brightness – the older a dune the brighter its colour.
With climate change contributing to an increase in rain fall and fog in the Namib Desert, more plants are growing in this area.
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