Sturt Stony Desert
Sturt Stony Desert (English Sturt 's Stony Desert ), is an Australian desert, which lies in the states of South Australia and to a lesser degree also in Queensland. It extends over an area of 29,750 square kilometers. The desert is mostly covered by desert pavement of stone rubble up to a size of 100 mm. She is one of the most arid and remote areas of Australia.
Discovery history
Sturt Stony Desert was named after the British explorer John McDouall Stuart, the first time crossed the desert in 1861. He named it after the British explorer Charles Sturt, on whose expeditions he had participated.
Climate
The climate alternates between hot summers and mild winters. The rains are low and the area is extremely arid.
Geology
Sturt Stony Desert was created by the Jurassic to the Tertiary over a sedimentary basin, the Eromanga Basin. Originally, the surveys in this landscape from weathering -prone sandstone on the weathering resistant Chalcedonian sandstone auflagerte. The efflorescence resistant components were destroyed in the course of erosion processes and washed out of the sand to weathered sandstone or transported by wind.
Landscape
The area is characterized by red sandy, stony and clayey layers, which originated in the Quaternary. The stony desert pavement, which make the crossing and the term Stony desert are eponymous for the desert. The sharp-edged stones, prepared the expedition of Stuart major problems as they battered the horses' hooves.
Among the desert lies the Great Artesian Basin, one of the largest freshwater basin in the world. This water resource is used for cattle farming, mining and tourism. In the desert there are several artesian springs, the most important at Dalhousie Springs. Many of the sources in the desert are threatened by intensive use by free-running camels, livestock and mining from Ersiegen.
Infrastructure
By Sturt Stony Desert the Birdsville Track Birdsville to Maree leads. In the desert are several small settlements. Telecommunications connections in the settlements were possible only in 1987.
Flora
The desert landscape can be described as savanna -like. On her grow low-growing acacias, as Gidgee (Acacia cambagei ), and eucalyptus, as the Coolabah (Eucalyptus Coolabah ) that grows on heavy clay soils, or red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis ), who finds enough water also drying up rivers, and Mulga bushes ( Acaciaaneura and Acaciaaneura stowardii ). In the savannah and on the sand hills and dunes the grass grows Zygochloa.
Coolabah
Red gum
Fauna
Free-running camels, horses, donkeys and rabbits threaten the ecology, with the rabbit plague back because of a disease. About 36 species of mammals, there were at the beginning of European settlement, ten of which are extinct in the desert region, including the Black-tailed Quoll ( Dasyurus geoffroii ), Golden Short bandicoot ( Isoodon auratus), Lesser bilby ( Macrotis lesueur ) and the short-tailed Hüpfmaus ( Notomys amplus ). Artenreich about 100 lizard species are represented in the desert.
157 bird species have been observed, including the Australian Bustard ( Ardeotis australis), Langschwanztriel ( Burhinus grallarius ), Black Kite ( Milvus migrans), Spiked Crested Pigeon ( Ocyphaps lophotes ), Galah ( Cacatua roseicapilla ) Drosselstelze ( Grallina cyanoleuca ), flute bird ( Gymnorhina tibican ) and Bronze Wing pigeon ( Phaps chalcoptera ) and slaty- crow shrike ( Cracticus torquatus ).
Thorny Devil
Lesser bilby ( extinct)
Australian Bustard
Galah
Economy
In the desert lie mineral resources such as coal and natural gas. Agriculture and the savanna is used by cattle and in the south to the north. Tourism had a meaning in Witjira National Park.