Bodélé Depression
Large dry lakebed in the Sahara Desert / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Bodélé Depression | |
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Location | North Central Africa |
Age | Few thousand years |
Formed by | Drying up of Lake Chad |
The Bodélé Depression (pronounced [bɔ.de.le]), located at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert in north central Africa, is the lowest point in Chad. It is 500 km long, 150 km wide and around 160 m deep.[1] Its bottom lies about 155 meters above sea level. The dry endorheic basin is a major source of fertile dust essential for the Amazon rainforest.
Dust storms from the Bodélé Depression occur on average about 100 days per year,[2] one typical example being the massive dust storms that swept over West Africa and the Cape Verde Islands in February 2004.[3][4] As the wind sweeps between the Tibesti and the Ennedi Mountains in Northern Chad, it is channeled across the depression. The dry bowl that forms the depression is marked by a series of ephemeral lakes, many of which were last filled during wetter periods of the Holocene.
Diatoms from these fresh water lakes, once part of the prehistoric Mega-Lake Chad, now make up the surface of the depression and are the source material for the dust,[2] which, carried across the Atlantic Ocean, is an important source of nutrient minerals for the Amazon rainforest.