DEAD VLEI, Namibia Unsurprisingly, the first part of the name Dead Vlei means dead; Vlei means marsh

DEAD VLEI, Namibia Unsurprisingly, the first part of the name Dead Vlei means dead; Vlei means marsh or lake in Afrikaans. It is a clay pan which formed when the nearby Tsauchab River flooded. This created shallow pools where the acacia and camel thorn trees were able to grow. Then, 900 to 1000 years ago, the climate changed. Drought struck the area and the sand dunes encroached on the pan, cutting off the vlei’s access to the river. The water gradually dried up but the trees did not petrify (where the organic matter is replaced by minerals). Instead, the trees died and were then scorched by the sun, blackening the wood. As the area was so dry, the wood could not decompose; the trees are desiccated rather than petrified. Dead Vlei is found near the salt pan of Sossusvlei (‘place of no return’), and is surrounded by sand dunes up to 400 metres tall; the largest is known as Big Daddy. The dunes are orange as the sand that composed them seemed to rust. There is life within this climate however as beetles, gerbils, ostriches, oryx, and a few other species have been found within the clay pan. The plants and animals subsist off of a light morning mist which sweeps in each morning from the coast of the Atlantic Ocean many kilometres away. -TEL Read more: http://atlasobscura.com/place/dead-vlei; http://www.kuriositas.com/2010/06/deadvlei-amazing-graveyard-of-900-year.html Photo credit: http://www.tobias-seiderer.de/namib.htm More photos: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-dead-vlei?image=0 -- source link

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