My ten year old son would like to know......?

Question

How did all the sand get into the deserts?

I obviously have not done a good job as a Catholic mother because he just won't have it that God put it there so he has asked me to ask you all.....many thanks

Answer 1

The main thing you need to explain is that deserts were not always deserts. At one point, every desert was a body of water. When the water dried up in parts of the world we were left with the sandy deserts that are there now.

The causes of this sand vary by different parts of the world. For example, in some areas, heavy waves crashing against rocks causes sand over time. In other areas fish that chew on coral excrete sand.

I hope this helps give a start to an understanding of where the sand came from.

Answer 2

Hi,
I am a CofE bloke, and therefore a fellow Christian, with the difference that I think I know that sand is not God created.
On the eighth day I bring you sand ! I think not. Please convey to your son, as I have conveyed to mine, of similar age, that it is just erosion of rock through natural forces such as wind and water. We could say that is all invented by a God, but your son should be also aware that the whole universe is just doing its' thing, without divine intervention.
I am sure that you are a fine Catholic mother, and just for fun, Antartica is known as a desert, as it means deserted.
The sands that I have lived in across the Mid-East were lush feilds thousands of years ago, then the earth tilted its' axis again, and all went dry.in those regions.

All the best,
Bob

Answer 3

"In the deserts, soils were primarily formed from the physical weathering (breaking apart) of rocks due to large temperature fluctuations between day and night, freezing and thawing, and the processes of erosion and sedimentation. The dry desert climate supports little vegetation and soil life. Therefore, organic matter levels in desert soils are very low and chemical weathering that dissolves rock and creates fine clay minerals does not occur. Also, the barren soil allows the fine minerals to be blown away easily. So what is left is sandy, gravelly, or rocky material."

One important point is: not all deserts are covered completely in sand. Some have vegetation.

Answer 4

According to Terry Pratchett, there is a race who go around building planets. They even play strange jokes, like burying a dinosaur with a placard that reads: "End Nuclear Testing Now". Anyway, they are the ones who put all the sand in the deserts.

Answer 5

I am also a catholic so i will try to put it in a way that is both scientific and christian. God had the wind and the rain wear down big rocks into little tiny rocks. He eventually brought them into the ocean which dried up and left behind large sandy deserts.

Answer 6

in some cases, like in Africa and parts of the middle east, deserts used to be lush savannas and eventually became deserts through the process of desertification, where grasslands become deserts because of drought, over-grazing, and especially climate changes like winds that shifted and carried existing sand to new and different areas

for more detailed information you could look on websites such as National Geographic's or online encyclopedias, these you could show to your son

Answer 7

Basically, sand gets blown into dunes by the wind. Wet sand won't blow in the wind because it clumps together, but dry sand is easily blown by strong winds. By the way, not all desert areas are covered with sand dunes, some are rocky.

Answer 8

It belongs to the "Sand Man "

Answer 9

Well, before us mere mortals, this was a planet full off giants....and they used BIIIIG buckets to collect sand from beaches ALLLL around the world, and dumped it in places that they call names like "Sahara, and Gobi".

Nuff Said

Answer 10

weathering+wind+erosion=sand