# How deep is the sand in the deserts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 16, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-deep-is-the-sand-in-the-deserts/415832 "2007-08-16T17:21:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2007, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-deep-is-the-sand-in-the-deserts/415832/21 "2007-08-18T02:11:35Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] As a related question, I wonder how long something (or someone) could be buried under loose sand in the Sahara, before being uncovered by a storm or the gradual movement of the sand? Maybe there’s ancient stuff hidden from view that the archeologists would love to get their hands on. [/QUOTE] I remember an article in _National Geographic_ on that topic. They were looking at fossil dunes, usually buried at the base of active ones. The mummified vegetation gave them a good idea as to what the ecology was 1000 years or more previously. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-deep-is-the-sand-in-the-deserts/415832/22 "2007-08-18T18:52:44Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Russell was giving a public lecture on astronomy, and an elderly lady in the audience presented the counter-proposal that, rather than being a round planet orbiting the Sun, the Earth was actually a flat disk resting on the backs of enormous turtles. Russell asked her, “But dear lady, what are the turtles resting on?” She replied, “You’re very clever, young man, very clever, but you won’t fool me! It’s turtles all the way down!” [/QUOTE] I always pictured the lady as Agnes from _The Simpsons_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-deep-is-the-sand-in-the-deserts/415832.md?page=1)