Sahara Sea

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A relief map of northwestern North Africa Rif carta fisica.jpg
A relief map of northwestern North Africa
A relief map of Egypt, with the Qattara Depression shown in blue Egypt relief location map.jpg
A relief map of Egypt, with the Qattara Depression shown in blue

The Sahara Sea was the name of a hypothetical macro-engineering project which proposed flooding endorheic basins in the Sahara Desert with waters from the Atlantic Ocean or Mediterranean Sea. The goal of this unrealised project was to create an inland sea that would cover the substantial areas of the Sahara Desert which lie below sea level, bringing humid air, rain, and agriculture deep into the desert.

Contents

The possibility of such a project was raised several times by different scientists and engineers during the late 19th century and early 20th century. The concept of a flooded Sahara was also featured in novels of the time. [1]

History

19th century

In 1877 the Scottish entrepreneur and abolitionist Donald Mackenzie was the first to propose the creation of a Sahara Sea. Mackenzie's idea was to cut a channel from one of the sand-barred lagoons north of Cape Juby, south to a large plain which Arab traders had identified to him as El Djouf. [2] [3] Mackenzie believed this vast region was up to 61 metres (200 ft) below sea level and that flooding it would create an inland sea of 155,400 square kilometres (60,000 sq mi) suited to commercial navigation and even agriculture. He further believed that geological evidence suggested this basin had once been connected to the Atlantic via a channel near the Saguia el-Hamra. He proposed that this inland sea, if augmented with a canal, could provide access to the Niger River and the markets and rich resources of West Africa. [3]

There are several small depressions in the vicinity of Cape Juby; at 55 m below sea level, the Sebkha Tah [4] is the lowest and largest. But it covers less than 250 km² and is 500 km north of the geographical area identified as El Djouf (also known as the Majabat al-Koubra [5] ) which has an average elevation of 320m.

Mackenzie never travelled in this area but had read of other sub-sea level desert basins in present-day Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt similar to those found near Cape Juby. [3] These basins contain seasonally dry salt lakes, known as chotts or sebkhas.

Map of Tunisia illustrating the area of Rourdaire's proposed Sahara Sea Carte chotts roudaire.jpg
Map of Tunisia illustrating the area of Rourdaire's proposed Sahara Sea

François Elie Roudaire, a French geographer, and Ferdinand de Lesseps, a diplomat influential in the creation of the Suez Canal, proposed this area for the creation of an inland sea in 1878. Roudaire and de Lesseps proposed that a channel be cut from the Gulf of Gabès in the Mediterranean to the Chott el Fejej [6] which would allow the sea to drain into these basins. They were not specific in the area such a sea would cover (although subsequent analyses suggested that it would be considerably smaller than Mackenzie's proposal at only 8,000 square kilometres (3,100 sq mi) in area), but argued that the new inland sea would improve the quality of weather on the European continent. [7] [8] [9] The estimated cost of the Roudaire project was $30,000,000 at the time. [9]

While Roudaire and de Lesseps were optimistic about the weather effects that such an inland sea would produce in Europe, others were not as hopeful. Alexander William Mitchinson argued that flooding substantial areas would create disease-ridden swamps. [7] [10] Others were critical of the feasibility of the project or the proposal to join the sea at El Djouf with the sea in what is now Tunisia and Algeria. [7] The project was ultimately rejected by the French Government and funding was withdrawn when surveys revealed that many areas were not below sea level as had been believed. [8] [11]

20th century

The proposal to create a Sahara Sea was revived in the early 1900s by French professor Edmund Etchegoyen. Around 1910, Etchegoyen proposed that a longer and deeper channel could be constructed. He argued that such a sea could be a boon for colonisation and could potentially produce an inland sea half the size of the Mediterranean. [12] This proposal was considered by the French government but also rejected. Critics noted that, while some parts of the Sahara Desert were indeed below sea level, much of the Sahara Desert was above sea level. This, they said, would produce an irregular sea of bays and coves; it would also be considerably smaller than estimates by Etchegoyen suggested. [7]

Map of the Qattara Depression illustrating the proposed routes of canals or tunnels linking it to the Mediterranean All proposed routes.PNG
Map of the Qattara Depression illustrating the proposed routes of canals or tunnels linking it to the Mediterranean

A proposal similar to that of Roudaire and de Lesseps was raised by members of Operation Plowshare, an American idea to use nuclear explosives in civil engineering projects such as the Qattara Depression Project. [13]

It was also suggested that nuclear explosives might be detonated to create a channel from the Mediterranean to the chotts of Tunisia. [11] [14] This proposal was abandoned, [11] however, with the signing of various treaties prohibiting peaceful nuclear explosions. [13]

21st century

The project regained steam in the mid 2010s with the creation of the association Cooperation Road [15] which in 2018 obtained the approval of the Tunisian government. [16]

Appearances in literature

The notion of a Sahara Sea has been featured several times in literature, most notably in Jules Verne's last novel, Invasion of the Sea , which directly referred to the plan of Roudaire and de Lesseps. [1] The idea of a flooded Sahara Desert also occurs in The Secret People by John Wyndham. In the 2017 film Aquaman , the Sahara desert was once a sea inhabited by an Atlantean tribe.

Other desert flooding projects

Since the late 19th century there have been proposals to connect Lake Eyre in the South Australian desert to the ocean via canal. [17]

In 1905, engineers working on an irrigation canal in southern California accidentally released the waters of the Colorado River into a formerly dry basin, creating a large saline lake known as the Salton Sea. Although the lake has shrunk considerably since its creation, it remains the largest lake in the state of California.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography of Algeria</span> Geographical features of Algeria

Algeria comprises 2,381,740 square kilometres (919,590 sq mi) of land, more than 80% of which is desert, in North Africa, between Morocco and Tunisia. It is the largest country in Africa. Its Arabic name, Al Jazair, is believed to derive from the rocky islands along the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. The northern portion, an area of mountains, valleys, and plateaus between the Mediterranean and the Sahara Desert, forms an integral part of the section of North Africa known as the Maghreb. This area includes Morocco, Tunisia, and the northwestern portion of Libya known historically as Tripolitania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography of Tunisia</span>

Tunisia is a country in Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, having a western border with Algeria (965 km) and south-eastern border with Libya (459 km) where the width of land tapers to the south-west into the Sahara. The country has north, east and complex east-to-north coasts including the curved Gulf of Gabès, which forms the western part of Africa's Gulf of Sidra. Most of this greater gulf forms the main coast of Libya including the city of Sirte which shares its root name. The country's geographic coordinates are 34°00′N9°00′E. Tunisia occupies an area of 163,610 square kilometres, of which 8,250 are water. The principal and reliable rivers rise in the north of the country with a few notable exceptions from north-east Algeria and flow through the northern plain where sufficient rainfall supports diverse plant cover and irrigated agriculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Juby</span> Cape in southern Morocco

Cape Juby is a cape on the coast of southern Morocco, near the border with Western Sahara, directly east of the Canary Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferdinand de Lesseps</span> French diplomat (1805–1894)

Ferdinand Marie, Comte de Lesseps was a French diplomat and later developer of the Suez Canal, which in 1869 joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas, substantially reducing sailing distances and times between Europe and East Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Endorheic basin</span> Closed drainage basin that allows no outflow

An endorheic basin is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other, external bodies of water, instead, the water drainage flows into permanent and seasonal lakes and swamps that equilibrate through evaporation. Endorheic basins also are called closed basins, terminal basins, and internal drainage systems.

In geology, a chott, shott, or shatt is a salt lake in Africa's Maghreb that stays dry for much of the year but receives some water in the winter. The elevation of a chott surface is controlled by the position of the water table and capillary fringe, with sediment deflation occurring when the water table falls and sediment accumulation occurring when the water table rises. They are formed—within variable shores—by the spring thaw from the Atlas mountain range, along with occasional rainwater or groundwater sources in the Sahara, such as the Bas Saharan Basin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Djerid</span> One of the six geographical and economic regions of Tunisia

el-Djerid, also al-Jarīd, or more precisely the South Western Tunisia Region is a semi-desert natural region comprising three southern Tunisian Governorates, Gafsa, Kebili and Tozeur with adjacent parts of Algeria and Libya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Oued Province</span> Province of Algeria

El Oued is a Saharan province of Algeria dominated by Oued Souf. It was named after its eponymous capital. Notable towns include El Oued itself and El M'Ghair, Djamaa and Guemar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tozeur Governorate</span> Governorate of Tunisia

Tozeur is the westernmost of the 24 governorates (provinces) of Tunisia and as such bordering Algeria. It covers an area of 4,719 km2 and has a population of 107,912 making it the least populated province. The capital is Tozeur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chott el Djerid</span> Salt lake, endorheic basin in Tunisia

Chott el Djerid also spelled Sciott Gerid and Shott el Jerid, is a chott, a large endorheic salt lake in southern Tunisia. The name can be translated from the Arabic into English as "Lagoon of the Land of Palms".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sabkha</span> Salt lake above the tide line, where evaporite deposits accumulate

A sabkha is a coastal, supratidal mudflat or sandflat in which evaporite-saline minerals accumulate as the result of semiarid to arid climate. Sabkhas are gradational between land and intertidal zone within restricted coastal plains just above normal high-tide level. Within a sabkha, evaporite-saline minerals sediments typically accumulate below the surface of mudflats or sandflats. Evaporite-saline minerals, tidal-flood, and aeolian deposits characterize many sabkhas found along modern coastlines. The accepted type locality for a sabkha is at the southern coast of the Persian Gulf, in the United Arab Emirates. Evidence of clastic sabkhas are found in the geological record of many areas, including the UK and Ireland. Sabkha is a phonetic transliteration of the Arabic word used to describe any form of salt flat. A sabkha is also known as a sabkhah,sebkha, or coastal sabkha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Erg Oriental</span> Erg in Algeria and Tunisia

The Grand Erg Oriental is a large erg or "field of sand dunes" in the Sahara Desert. Situated for the most part in Saharan lowlands of northeast Algeria, the Grand Erg Oriental covers an area some 600 km wide by 200 km north to south. The erg's northeastern edge spills over into neighbouring Tunisia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tunisian salt lakes</span> Salted depressions between Gulf of Gabès and Algerian border

The Tunisian salt lakes are a series of lakes in central Tunisia, lying south of the Atlas Mountains at the northern edge of the Sahara. The lakes include, from east to west, the Chott el Fedjedj, Chott el Djerid, and Chott el Gharsa.

<i>Invasion of the Sea</i> 1905 novel by Jules Verne

Invasion of the Sea is an adventure novel written by Jules Verne. It was published in 1905, the last to be published in the author's lifetime, and describes the exploits of Berber nomads and European travelers in Saharan Africa. The European characters arrive to study the feasibility of flooding a low-lying region of the Sahara desert to create an inland sea and open up the interior of Northern Africa to trade. In the end, however, the protagonists' pride in humanity's potential to control and reshape the world is humbled by a cataclysmic earthquake which results in the natural formation of just such a sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantropa</span> Proposed engineering project to create new land within the Mediterranean Sea

Atlantropa, also referred to as Panropa, was a gigantic engineering and colonisation idea that German architect Herman Sörgel devised in the 1920s, and promoted until his death in 1952. The project was devised to contain several hydroelectric dams in key points of the Mediterranean Sea, such as the Strait of Gibraltar and the Bosporus, to cause a sea level drop and create new land to settle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qattara Depression Project</span> Hydroelectric macro-engineering concept in Egypt

The Qattara Depression Project, or Qattara Project for short, is a macro-engineering project concept in Egypt. Rivalling the Aswan High Dam in scope, the intention is to develop the hydroelectric potential of the Qattara Depression by creating an artificial lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">François Élie Roudaire</span>

François Élie Roudaire was a French author, military officer and geographer. He, along with Ferdinand de Lesseps, was a proponent of creating an inland Sahara Sea by flooding areas of the Sahara Desert which were below sea level.

Chott el Fejej, also known as Chott el Fedjedj and Chott el Fejaj, is a long, narrow inlet of the endorheic salt lake Chott el Djerid in southern Tunisia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saharan halophytics</span> Ecoregion in North Africa

The Saharan halophytics ecoregion covers a series of low-lying evaporite depressions and wetlands spread across North Africa. The depressions are characteristically saline, variously chotts or sabkhas. The plants of the areas are highly specialized to survive in the harsh environment, with many being xerophytes (drought-tolerant) and halophytes (salt-tolerant). The biodiversity of the areas has been relatively protected by their isolation, and unsuitability of alkaline soil for farming.

References

  1. 1 2 Taves, Brian. "Review of Invasion of the Sea". North American Jules Verne Society. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  2. ↑ Cust, R. (1884). "The railway over the Sahára from Algeria to the Senegál and the destruction of Colonel Flatters". Journal of the Royal United Service Institution. Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies. 28 (77): 839–856. doi:10.1080/03071848409424351 . Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 Mackenzie, Donald (1877). The flooding of the Sahara: an account of the proposed plan for opening Central Africa to commerce and civilization from the north-west coast, with a description of Soudan and western Sahara, and notes of ancient manuscripts, &c. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  4. ↑ Fassi-Fihri, Ali (2009). "L'Acces Generalise A L'electricite, Un Prealable Au Developpement Le Socle De Notre Strategie: Un Bouquet Electrique Fiable Et Flexible" [Generalized Access to Electricity, a Prerequisite to Developing the Foundation of Our Strategy: A Reliable and Flexible Electrical Package](PDF). Ministère De L'énergie Des Mines De L'eau Et De L'environnement (in French). Kingdom of Morocco. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 June 2010. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  5. ↑ "El Djouf". Geoview.info. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  6. ↑ Hill, Christopher L. (2008). National History and the World of Nations: Capital, State, and the Rhetoric of History in Japan, France, and the United States. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN   978-0822343165 . Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Spinage, Clive Alfred (2012). African Ecology: Benchmarks and Historical Perspectives. Springer Geography (Illustrated ed.). New York: Springer. ISBN   978-3642228711 . Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  8. 1 2 McKay, Donald Vernon (1943). "Colonialism in the French geographical movement 1871-1881". Geographical Review. American Geographical Society. 33 (2): 214–232. doi:10.2307/209775. JSTOR   209775.
  9. 1 2 Plummer, Harry Chapin (1913). "A Sea in the Sahara". National Waterways: A Magazine of Transportation. National Rivers and Harbors Congress. 1 (2): 131–138. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
  10. ↑ Mitchinson, Alexander William (1881). The expiring continent: A narrative of travel in Senegambia, with observations on native character, the present condition and future prospects of Africa and colonisation. London: W. H. Allen & Co. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  11. 1 2 3 Jacobs, Daniel (2009). The Rough Guide to Tunisia. London: Penguin. ISBN   978-1405384551 . Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  12. ↑ "To Make Sea of Sahara" (PDF). Yorkville Enquirer. 16 May 1911. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  13. 1 2 Barletta, Michael (August 2001). Pernicious ideas in world politics: "Peaceful nuclear explosives" (PDF). San Francisco, CA: Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
  14. ↑ Jousiffe, Ann (2010). Tunisia. Globetrotter: Guide and Map Series (4th ed.). London: New Holland Publishers. ISBN   978-1845378646 . Retrieved 16 December 2012.
  15. ↑ "Mare nel Sahara".
  16. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fantonio.demartini.589%2Fposts%2F1374115362734251&width=500" [ user-generated source ]
  17. ↑ Butcher, John, ed. (2008). Bradfields Hydraulic Dreaming. ANU Press. doi: 10.22459/AUC.04.2008 . ISBN   9781921313776.
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