Fossil dunes: climate change is creating them in Abu Dhabi

Al Wathba is a region of oasis-like wetlands that attract flocks of flamingos. Something very unexpected is about to happen. Something created and shaped over tens of thousands of years by forces stimulated by the climate change It’s about the fossil dunes from Abu Dhabi like frozen waves rising from the desert. They stand out in an ocean of firm sand, moved by the wind. A real tourist attraction.

In practice, the moisture in the soil caused the calcium carbonate in the sand to harden. The wind then
he scratched them and molded them into unusual shapes over time. Thomas Steuber, professor at the department
Earth sciences from Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi have done an interesting study.

The Persian Gulf is a small basin that is very shallow, it is only about 120 meters deep, so at the height of the ice age, about 20,000 years ago, there was so much accumulated on the polar caps that there was no water from the ocean, which meant that the Gulf was dry and the source of material for the fossil dunes.

Thomas Steuber, Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi

The professor states that the dunes can be found, as in the United Arab Emirates, also in India, Arabia
Saudi Arabia and Bahamas. Furthermore, theerosion allowing them to take on unique shapes will ensure that they
even the disappearance. Therefore, those who visit them should keep a safe distance to admire them. To enjoy their beauty, the first evening is better in the magical light of the sunset.

Stauber and his team speculated that the fossil dunes could be evidence of the inspiration for the
story of the flood of Noah In practice, at the end of the Ice Ages, there was a flooding of the Gulf
Perch, rapidly raising sea levels. A story, that of Noah’s flood that appears in
Quran, in the Bible and in the Torah. In short, the holy books of the three major religions of the Middle East.