# Terraform Mars? Whay not terraform the sahara desert?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terraform-mars-whay-not-terraform-the-sahara-desert/249850>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 11, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terraform-mars-whay-not-terraform-the-sahara-desert/249850 "2004-06-11T18:07:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terraform-mars-whay-not-terraform-the-sahara-desert/249850/21 "2004-06-14T23:16:55Z")

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> [@Shalmanese](#):
>
> In roman times, the Sahara was what fed most of the roman empire. The sahara is a rather interesting case in that it constantly oscillates from lush forest to dead desert. Even a little vegetation will be enough to capture the moisture rich air flowing over it which increases rainfall which consequently increases vegetation and moisture retention until you have quite productive land. On the other hand, a slight reduction in vegetation reduces the rainfall which has a flow on effect into turning it into arid desert. Most of this research is quite recent and we still don’t know many of the details which just highlights how careful we should be going into large climate changing projects as the effect could be quite dramatic.

Gosh, this is like reading the Dune series.

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**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terraform-mars-whay-not-terraform-the-sahara-desert/249850/22 "2004-06-15T03:46:39Z")

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Pushkin is right, KP’s post is cool.

Another cool fact: The earth’s crust’s density is 3.4 (?–IIR) that of water, typically. There have been large dams whose filling resulted in a string of local micro-earthquakes.

If we make a pond 70x100 miles in area and 340 feet deep in the Sahara, that would depress the surface there about 100 feet, with further possibilities of unexpected ensuing events.

I say let’s do it, too!

Signed, Daughter of Engineers

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