Winds of time

  • Wind has no specific direction: it moves over time with the change of pressure and vacuum.
  • Wind erosion transports soils from one area and deposits them elsewhere without bothering about national boundaries.
  • The deposited soil has properties close to those of the soil it came from.
  • In the UAE, wind from coastal land picks up white calcareous sand and deposits it nearby as white soil.
  • Wind transports iron-rich red sand and deposits it elsewhere as red soil.
  • Grey sand formed from igneous rock (gabbro) is deposited as grey soil.
  • Dredged material from the sea produces cream-colored calcareous/seashell-rich soil.
  • The UAE is a federation of seven emirates and no one color of sand is specific to each emirate but multicolored sands are continuously shifting across and outside the UAE.
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