Caves reveal Australia wasteland's secret past
Posted: Feb 12, 2016 11:54 amhttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-35499520
The iconic Nullarbor Plain is a vast expanse of desert straddling South and Western Australia, which receives less than 30cm of rain annually and is nearly entirely devoid of trees.
This inhospitable landscape is generally believed to have evolved in a linear fashion, becoming increasingly more arid in response to a cooling event in the southern hemisphere, which began around 14 million years ago.
But now, scientists at the University of Melbourne say a mysterious period of rapid warming, beginning five million years ago, dramatically altered the landscape of the Nullarbor Plain, bringing substantially more rain and allowing new plant life to flourish
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The iconic Nullarbor Plain is a vast expanse of desert straddling South and Western Australia, which receives less than 30cm of rain annually and is nearly entirely devoid of trees.
This inhospitable landscape is generally believed to have evolved in a linear fashion, becoming increasingly more arid in response to a cooling event in the southern hemisphere, which began around 14 million years ago.
But now, scientists at the University of Melbourne say a mysterious period of rapid warming, beginning five million years ago, dramatically altered the landscape of the Nullarbor Plain, bringing substantially more rain and allowing new plant life to flourish
.
.
.