Using orbiter data , NASA scientists have make the first - ever 3D model demo just how much dust ready its way from the Saharan Desert to the Amazon wood . Incredibly , this junk is seeding the rain woods with an indispensable nutrient , an indication of just how interconnected these disparate area really are .
Each twelvemonth , air current kicks up an average of 182 million tons of dust . This amount is tantamount to 689,290 semi hand truck filled with dust . One airborne , this fine particulate matter travels 1,600 miles ( 2,575 km ) across the Atlantic Ocean . Some of it return to the surface , but as these plumes approach the easterly sea-coast of South America , 132 million lots of it stay in the air . Of that , 27.7 million tons , or 104,908 semi motortruck deserving , trickle down to the surface of the Amazon Basin . Another 43 million tons speculation further northwards to the Caribbean Sea .
The work of University of Maryland atmospheric scientist Hongbin Yu has shown that the Saharan Desert is flow the Amazon with upwards of 22,000 tons of phosphorus each year . That ’s about the same amount lost to rain and implosion therapy . Phosphorus , which is imbed within the ok Saharan dust , is an essential food that acts like a fertilizer . This dry , desert rubble is literally fueling the rainfall woodland .
It ’s authoritative to observe that these figures are averages . Each class experiences a huge variation in debris quantity . For example , there was an 86 % divergence between the highest amount of dust transport in 2007 and the lowest in 2011 .
Much more in the picture ( above ) and atNASA .
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