desert

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Burning Man Is the Opposite of Burning This Year

About an inch of rain makes a muddy mess out of site in Nevada desert

(Newser) - One might be tempted to rebrand Burning Man attendees from "burners" into "mudders" this year. As CNN reports, unusual storms dumped enough rain—a little less than an inch—on the annual bacchanal in the Nevada desert to turn Black Rock City into a soggy mess that has...

Mountain Biker Who Helped Rescue Hikers Dies

Cyclists had guided Cal Fire rescue helicopter in desert

(Newser) - A group of four mountain bikers came across four hikers in the San Diego County desert on Saturday who had no food or water in the 103-degree heat. The bikers spent hours helping the four, who appeared to be suffering from heat exhaustion, and facilitating their rescue, the San Diego ...

'It's 9K Years Old and Everything Was Almost Intact'

Shrine discovered in Jordan desert

(Newser) - A team of Jordanian and French archaeologists said Tuesday that it had found a roughly 9,000-year-old shrine at a remote Neolithic site in Jordan's eastern desert. The ritual complex was found in a Neolithic campsite near large structures known as "desert kites," or mass traps that...

Family Stuck in Outback Rescued After 5 Days

Kids ages 2 and 3 were helicoptered to safety along with parents

(Newser) - A family of four, including two children under the age of 4, have been rescued from Australia's remote desert just as temperatures were expected to top 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Perth couple Ori and Lindsey Zavros and their children, aged 2 and 3, set out a year ago to travel...

Missing Geologist Crashed in Ravine. That Wasn't the End

Collision report suggests Daniel Robinson may have tried to restart rolled vehicle

(Newser) - Update: The wrecked vehicle of geologist Daniel Robinson, who's been missing in Arizona since June, sped up immediately before it crashed into a desert ravine, the Buckeye Police Department said Wednesday. The acceleration may "indicate an attempt to drive up the other side of the ravine," police...

Monolith in Utah Desert Disappears
Monolith in
Utah Desert
Disappears

Monolith in Utah Desert Disappears

Object of international curiosity and speculation was removed

(Newser) - The shiny, metal monolith that appeared in the Utah desert was already mysterious; land officials don't know how it got there. But the mystery now has deepened: The monolith is gone. Officials in the state's Bureau of Land Management say they don't know how that happened, either,...

Online Sleuth Finds Mystery Monolith

And theories are popping up that might explain it

(Newser) - Artists? Aliens? Prop masters? A monolith discovered in the middle of the Utah desert has spawned all kinds of theories—including the notion that a film crew left it behind, the Smithsonian reports. So let's start with that one:

By 2080, These US Cities Will Be Arid Wastelands

If climate change patterns continue as expected, per GOBankingRates.com

(Newser) - Climate-linked headaches are taking place worldwide , but closer to home, a bunch of US sites are at risk of turning into actual deserts. GOBankingRates.com examined data from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and found 15 cities that will have significantly different climates by 2080, if global...

CBP: Girl From India Dies in Desert on Way to US

Death took place in 'dangerous and austere location' in Arizona

(Newser) - The body of a 7-year-old girl believed to be from India was found this week in a remote part of the Arizona desert just over the border with Mexico, a death that a Border Patrol official is calling "senseless," reports the Daily Beast . Per a Customs and Border...

Walk or Die: Algeria Shoved 13K Migrants Into Sahara

Mass expulsions pick up in last 14 months; 'there were people who couldn't take it,' says survivor

(Newser) - Algeria has abandoned more than 13,000 people in the Sahara Desert over the past 14 months, including pregnant women and children, expelling them without food or water and forcing them to walk, at times at gunpoint, under blistering temperatures of up to 118 degrees. In Niger, where the majority...

She Went for a Desert Hike. Then, a Moment of 'Utter Terror'

Claire Nelson survived more than 3 days in Joshua Tree National Park after falling from boulder

(Newser) - For Claire Nelson, her moment of "complete and utter terror" came in the middle of a hike in California's Joshua Tree National Park. Per the BBC , the New Zealand native, who was visiting the US and cat-sitting for friends, headed over to the park on May 22 for...

Boy Trips Over Million-Year-Old Piece of History
Boy Tripped
While Hiking,
Made Big Find
in the Process
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Boy Tripped While Hiking, Made Big Find in the Process

Jude Sparks accidentally uncovered a stegomastodon skull

(Newser) - Luck came not once, but twice for Jude Sparks. The then-9-year-old was lucky enough to trip not on a rock, or a tree root, but on a 1.2-million-year-old fossil when trying to dash away from his brothers on a November desert hike with his family. And as New Mexico...

Wet Winter Brings Spring Treat to California Deserts

Wildflowers are back, along with tourists

(Newser) - Rain-fed wildflowers have been sprouting from California's desert sands after lying dormant for years—producing a spectacular display that has drawn record crowds and traffic jams to tiny towns like Borrego Springs. An estimated 150,000 people in the past month have converged on the town of about 3,...

The Plausible Implausibility of California's Lost Treasure Ship
Legend of Lost Treasure Ship
Thrives in California Desert
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Legend of Lost Treasure Ship Thrives in California Desert

Believers say it's out there, buried amid the rocks and sand

(Newser) - Alexander Nazaryan calls it "fake news for the romantic soul." Tales of a treasure-laden ship lost in the sands of California's Colorado desert that—though the details change—have persisted for at least 140 years. The Newsweek reporter takes a journey into the desert with a former...

Tesla Owner Stranded in Desert, and Not for Lack of Charge
Tesla Owner Stranded in Desert,
and Not for Lack of Charge
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Tesla Owner Stranded in Desert, and Not for Lack of Charge

Ryan Negri relied on phone to start car, but they were out of range

(Newser) - One Tesla Model S driver learned the hard way that technology has its limits. In a story he tells on Instagram , Ryan Negri describes venturing out into the Nevada desert with his wife and two dogs: "The thought was to go for a quick drive to take some photos...

Theory May Finally Explain Fabled 'Fairy Circles'

It's a combo of plants and termites

(Newser) - Scientists are always crashing the party when they bring the likeliest but often mundane reasons for mysterious phenomena. Such is the case in Namibia, where so-called "fairy circles" that pockmark the desert are now being explained in the journal Nature as not the footprints of gods or poisoned patches...

New Species Looks Like Ant, Bee Had a Baby

9 new species of desert bee revealed in Zootaxa study

(Newser) - If an ant and a bee had a baby, it would probably look a lot like the male Perdita prodigiosa, one of nine new species of desert bee mesmerizing researchers. All of the newly discovered bees come from the Perdita group of more than 700 species and subspecies of bees...

3 Kids Dumped in Scorching Desert as Punishment: Cops

California mom Mary Bell, boyfriend Gary Cassle arrested on felony child abuse charges

(Newser) - San Bernardino County deputies received a disturbing call Wednesday: Three young children were wandering around a Twentynine Palms-area desert. When they arrived on the scene around 11:30am, one of the hottest parts of the day ( KESQ notes it was around 94 degrees; the New York Daily News says...

Water Once Flowed Across the Sahara—and Might Again

New images reveal an ancient river system running through the desert

(Newser) - The Sahara wasn't much of a desert a while back. Satellite images have confirmed the existence of a river network that spanned hundreds of miles and made the region habitable for plants, animals, and humans as recently as 5,000 years ago, according to a French study in Nature...

Cops: Man Left Granddaughter, 5, in Desert With Loaded Gun

He reportedly told her to 'shoot any bad guys'

(Newser) - After downing a cheeseburger and a handful of drinks Sunday evening, Paul Rater called home and ordered his wife to come get him, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says, per the Arizona Republic . But instead of his wife showing up at the South Buckeye Equestrian Center, the cops did—...

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