Live Wilderness Adventure

Chapter 816 Oasis

Lightning strike?

The audience was dumbfounded.

Bi Fang explained in a simple way.

The first field tests in Western Sahara have shown that when wind-blown sand grains rub against each other, an electric field is generated.

When this happens, the smaller dust particles typically pick up electrons from the larger dust particles, thus becoming negatively charged themselves.

As a result, dust particles are more likely to be blown higher into the air, while positively charged sand particles tend to be closer to the ground. This separation of charges creates an electric field that electrifies the dust trapped in the sand, Let it flow more into the air, and you create bigger storms.

The ball has not only downward lightning, but upward lightning.

【Hiss, then this is too dangerous】

[The knowledge of cowhide has increased]

[By the way, I have never heard of it. 】

It's right if you haven't heard of it, because the probability of this kind of event itself is not high. I don't think I have heard of anyone who encountered a sandstorm and was killed by the lightning inside.

【Too Hell】

【I have never heard of it】

【In short, let’s celebrate, it’s another day of racing against death】

【Fangshen's ass is behind a rocket, right?】

【Death is like the wind, always with me, but it can never catch up】

Having survived the sandstorm crisis, Bi Fang continued on the road with Alpha, but this time he did not choose to control the rein, but let it hang freely.

There are many ways to get water in the desert, but since there are camels, there is no need to choose those complicated and slow-acting ones.

I said before that you can undoubtedly find water sources and even food by following animals, but the animals here definitely don't include things like you can find water sources if you bring a dog along.

Almost all animals in nature have their own fixed living territory, even migratory birds. Although they migrate every year, the route is fixed.

They know where there is lush water and grass, where there are no predators, where they can rest safely, and they will hardly change. This is why Professor Etienne came to me all the way and asked me to help change the white-fronted geese. Migration routes, if not changed, they will be driven to extinction by migration routes of increasing urbanization.

Have you found out why?

The reason why most animals know the location of the water source is not because they are gifted, with antennas inserted in their heads, and where there is water, the antennas will point there.

Bi Fang put his hands on his temples, stretched out his index finger, and turned around, making a more comic gesture, which amused the audience.

[Is it because they live here that they know? 】

That's right, the animal's territory is like our house, and the water source is the tap water supply in the house. As the owner of the house, you naturally know where the faucets are in your house.

Animals get thirsty, and you know that you just have to follow them to find the faucet, but when you take a dog and break into unfamiliar territory, you can only rely on luck to find the faucet.

Almost all animals do not have the ability to directly find water sources, so they usually don't leave their territorial positions.

If the faucet in the house is broken, and there is no plumber in the natural world, animals can only move, but moving is not so easy, and often will pay a very painful price. Anyone who has seen the migration of the African savannah in the animal world should be very clear .”

[Greedhorse! ! ! 】

[Widowmaker, African buffalo! 】

[It’s really shocking, every time I see them crossing the river, then they are bitten by crocodiles, and finally become dinner, or pass by with the big force by luck]

[Humans may have to spend a lifetime of savings and labor to move, and it is not easy for animals (dog head)]

[Almost all, I guess Lao Fang must be a special case, I guess it is Alpha]

clever.

Bi Fang smiled and patted Alpha on the neck.

When humans are in the desert, the biggest difficulty is the water source. If you don't drink water, you may die in a few hours if you are dehydrated. But the camels in the desert don't, they can always find The oases in the desert drink water, and they are very few animals that can actively find water sources.

This is due to their unique noses. The nostrils of camels are obliquely open and can be opened and closed freely to prevent dust from entering. There are valve-like structures inside, which are covered with olfactory cells. Not only can they find food, Deserts, for tasteless water sources, feel damp from far away.

Such a nose is enough for a camel to find water sources more than 20 kilometers away through its sense of smell, making it have a much higher chance of surviving when crossing the desert than a human carrying a large bag of mineral water.

So, if you really get lost in the desert, experienced people will stop feeding the camel to drink water. After a few days, loosen the rein and let it move freely, and it will find itself.

[Fuck, this sense of smell is invincible, right?]

[No matter how invincible, I was still caught by Fang Shen (funny)]

[Fang Shen is still better]

[In other words, is such an awesome sense of smell stronger than dogs and bears? I don't think they can find water by smell either. 】

It's true that dogs and bears can't find water by smell, but it's not certain that camels have a better sense of smell than either of them.

Bi Fang shook his head, making everyone a little confused.

In fact, camels have less than 800 olfactory receptor genes, which sounds like a lot, but on the contrary, camels have relatively few olfactory receptor genes among animals.

Normal humans have more than 1,000, dogs have 1,300, and more powerful mice have 1,500.

But neither humans, dogs nor rats can locate the water source. It's not a matter of distance. Even if it's less than ten meters, they can't know that there is water in front of them just by smell.

The camel's own scent discrimination ability is actually far inferior to that of dogs, bears, and rats. This is still related to its living environment. In the desert, they don't need a strong scent discrimination ability, because there are not many smells that need to be distinguished in the desert.

So it's not a problem that camels have fewer olfactory receptor genes. On the contrary, because there are not many smells that need to be distinguished, these olfactory receptor genes have a stronger professional division of labor. It has been strengthened in some special olfactory aspects. In terms of smelling water and other green plants, it is far stronger than other animals!

In the soil of the vegetation, a chemical substance called 'geosmin' is emitted. This special smell is similar to the smell of freshly turned soil, and camels can smell it from a long distance.

In fact, we can sometimes smell this smell, for example, on rainy days, the 'earth smell' after the rain is also geosmin, which is essentially the metabolic waste of bacteria.

In summer, there are several days of drought, and a sudden heavy rain will wash the earth, the leaves will be greener and the flowers will be redder, and even the air will be filled with a fragrance of earth.

You take a deep breath, full of the fragrance of plants and the unique smell of soil, the fragrance of nature.

But scientists will tell you that this earthy aroma after rain is actually an organic compound volatilized by some fungi, which is a smell trap under the bacteria, which is used to attract springtails to eat and help Streptomyces spores spread.

[Ah this, ah this, ah this]

【I have always liked the smell after it rains.】

【It's over, I can't go back】

[What's the matter, we don't know how many bacteria we eat every time we breathe]

A person with mediocre talent, year after year, concentrates on only one thing, and may become an outstanding person.

There are so many smells in nature, but these camels don’t need them all, and natural enemies are rare. Its biggest enemy is the natural environment, so it only needs to smell a few kinds of smells. Even if the sense of smell is poor, it can make up for it.

The reins hung down on Alpha's neck, and Alpha walked under the sun for a while, then walked straight for a while before he realized something was wrong, turned his head to look at the rope around his neck, and didn't know whether to move on for a while , stayed in place.

Bi Fang didn't let it stop, and gently pinched Alpha's abdomen with his legs, signaling him to move on.

[Can you really find it? Is there water in the desert?】

【There must be, Oasis】

[Does the oasis really exist? I feel that they are all film and television dramas, or fictions. There may be, but only a few sporadic ones, right? 】

You are thinking wrong. The Sahara Desert is indeed the largest desert, but it is not the driest desert, nor is it the most monotonous desert.

The so-called desert is more like a treeless surface. The 9 million square kilometers of desert is about the size of China. Although it looks like a piece of yellow and orange at first glance, the geological structure is actually not simple.

For example, the four oases in Egypt, if you look closely at the terrain, they are actually located on a fault zone. This terrain is inherently guiding, and the most important thing is to provide water.

A few days ago, I told you about the cause of the Sahara. I don't know if you still remember it.

The desertification of the Sahara was very late. The Nile Valley was an uninhabitable place before the agricultural age, because there were huge piles of stone layers, which were even 100 meters thick during the ice age.

So people gradually migrated from the grasslands before desertification, and some people must have rivers.

Bi Fang began to correct the thoughts of the water friends.

Prosperity hides in poverty.

Earlier in Egyptian civilization, the eastern desert, Nubia, Libya, and the desert around the Nile River were not so dry, and there were still many rivers.

Egypt's exchanges with external civilizations, ore mining, timber, and even arable land itself still rely heavily on these rivers. Although the main stream of the Nile River is now the absolute center, it is at least not the only one. It can even be said that the dry river valley played a role in the formation and maturity of Egyptian civilization. The status in the Middle East and the Mediterranean Sea, Libya, Sinai, and Nubia are juxtaposed.

In Egyptian legend, Seth, the god of the delta, and Horus, the god of the Nile Valley, fought for many years. In the end, Horus defeated Seth and drove him to the desert to become the god of the desert. This clearly reflects the dignity of the river valley delta and the desert. , but don’t forget, since the desert can be juxtaposed with the valley delta, it shows that Egypt attaches great importance to the desert.”

If the so-called Sahara Desert is really worthless and birds don’t lay eggs, how can it be taken seriously?

In many local myths, some human development threads can actually be sorted out.

In areas with developed water systems, it is absolutely impossible for the locals to enshrine a powerful Vulcan, and the Vulcan in the system can never beat the Water God.

Perhaps the conditions are not so good and rich, but in the hearts of the Egyptians, the importance of the desert in culture is several dimensions higher than that of the desert in the eyes of modern people.

Even though it was true that the sky was full of yellow sand at that time, there were a lot of oases in the desert, and a lot of human beings survived. Only in this way can they occupy a considerable position in the culture.

It's a pity that desert archaeology didn't start until the end of the last century. Now we mainly study the dry valleys in the eastern part of the river bend in Upper Egypt. There are also some discoveries in the west, but not many.

The cost of desert archaeology is too high, and it is a job that is destined to have an extremely small input-output ratio.

It is very difficult to search for blurred inscriptions on cliffs or gravel in valleys stretching hundreds of kilometers, eating sand and holding a brush.

So a long time ago, there were actually quite a few oases and rivers in the Sahara Desert.

Up to now, many of these rivers have disappeared on the surface, but they still exist in the invisible underground, rushing endlessly, and continuing to supply the emergence of oases.

The facts are exactly as Bi Fang said.

There are a considerable number of underground rivers under the Sahara Desert. The water resources of these underground rivers are relatively sufficient, and some even form small rivers directly in the desert.

With the water supply from underground rivers, there will be oases of considerable scale in the desert, and various plants will appear on them, and some animals will live on some larger oases. In such oases, human beings It's hard to imagine that you are in the middle of the desert.

Kelzaz Oasis is a relatively famous oasis in the Sahara Desert. It is also formed by underground rivers, and according to investigations, there are even various small fish in many underground rivers. People can directly find them in the Sahara Desert. Fishing in the river.

It's an absolute spectacle in the Sahara.

【Another day of learning both Chinese and Western】

[Mythology researcher, Fang Shen’s profession plus one]

[Although it is only a common myth, it still feels awesome]

It is not surprising that a mathematician is proficient in mathematics and has a good grasp of various professional problems, but if he also shows a certain literary quality, even if he is not at the level of a professional scholar, it will still be surprising and even admirable, because this is not only The level of professionalism, but the breadth of breadth.

Unfortunately, things don't seem to be as easy as Bi Fang thought.

Alpha was not restrained by the rein, and did not change direction, but walked in a straight line, and did not change until several hours later, and it seemed that he did not realize that he could walk casually until the evening.

For this reason, Bi Fang even hardened the midday sun to prevent Alpha's inspiration from being interrupted.

There was not enough water in the first place, and after one afternoon, his lips became dry and chapped with white skin, and he couldn't even make a big expression, otherwise he would be chapped and bleed.

The situation continued until eight or nine o'clock in the evening, when the moon rose, Bi Fang finally had a harvest.

In the line of sight, a black spot appeared on the vast land.