How to Kill a Desert

How to Kill a Desert

Anonymous Employee of scmp.com

If a volcanic eruption were to occur in a desert, the results would be rather depressing. I will show the sequence of events that would occur and ultimately lead to the extinction of nearly all life in a desert.

Immediately following the eruption of the volcano, a thick cloud of volcanic ash and pumice would go hurling into the air and block the sun for a wide surrounding area of desert. The lack of sunlight would disorient the reptile populace that would likely begin to experience the negative effects of sunlight-deficiency. 

Christopher Era

As the cloud of ash and pumice begins to descend upon the unfortunate desert, the few mammals will begin to experience difficulty in breathing and will also become disoriented like the reptiles. 

The plants of the desert will also lack the sunlight necessary to continue photosynthesis and will begin to die from lack of sunlight. 

Pyroclastic flows will then begin, which will send smoldering rock and ash cascading down the side of the volcano. This smoldering rock and ash will annihilate any plant and animals life in its way and set the desert ablaze. The plants will immediately burn down and the animals will be left without any food to eat. 

Jes Gordon

The already poor quality soil level of the desert will become even less fertile as the ash and rock settle and destroy the opportunity for any immediate growth.

The decomposers of the desert will then have no role as everything that they could decompose has become incinerated by the volcanic eruption. Ultimately, the desert has been turned into a volcanic desert, which is a desert with even less growth and life than a normal desert. 

A volcanic eruption in a desert would completely disrupt every aspect of the fragile desert ecosystem and leave the desert devoid of any life or vegetation. 

John Grabowska