Biological Soil Crusts and their ability to trap dust, add nutrients to soil and affect the hydro cycle, are critical factors of soil pedogenesis within a desert region. As pioneer organisms, BSC's are able to colonize extreme environmental conditions well before vascular plants take root. Without the soil crusts, a desert can and will turn into desert pavement, an impervious surface, which supports no biological processes. The microorganisms add a significant amount of organ

Cold Lava? The East African Rift Valley was created about 25 million years ago as a divergent (moving away from each other) tectonic plate boundary formed as the Somalian plate moves away from the Nubian plate. The East African Rift (EAR) Valley, noted by Astronauts, is the most significant physical detail on the Earth’s surface from space. Our continental lithosphere (Earth’s crust and upper mantle) is typically 93 miles (150km) thick! The formation of the Rift thinned the c