Talk:Alluvial desert

Doesn't make sense

Alluvial describes rich, fertile soil deposited by rivers and streams, so the alluvial desert is a desert that has been created from two large rivers leaving behind their rich, fertile sediments. The world's first civilization, which was Mesopotamia, developed in this region in between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. At one time, it was believed that they began food production here because of the rich soil, but although there was this rich soil present, it was still necessary for them to invent irrigation in order to successfully farm this alluvial desert.

Copied the above. Doesn't quite make sense... Paleorthid 22:51, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

I think this whole thing is a non-sequitur. A desert is defined not by what it is made up of, but by its rainfall. A desert isn't technically a geological feature, but a climatological feature.

I can see what the author of this "paragraph" is trying to say; that covilisation has been able to make use of more land for farming by expanding irrigation. But this is true regardless of whether it is on alluvial floodplains (Egypt, Mesopotamia, Murray Basin), or mountains (Nepal). It is perhaps a truism that you can only farm in the desert via irrigation, but again, why does this have to make use of alluvium? Technically you could grow crops on poor colluvium given enough water.

My vote is for basically deleting this. It is an argument of anthropology, not pedology or geology; perhaps this could be turned over to a discussion with climatolgists, but basically, the alluvium has nothing to do with desertification. And who is to say whether the Euphrates in 6,000 B.C. was not less desertified than today? That was true for Israel and many areas of the Middle East which have been denuded of trees and vegetation by the encroachment of human civilisation and goat herding.Rolinator 10:00, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Redirecting to Desert pavement

Alluvial desert seems to be another term for reg, which is an alternate term for desert pavement. (See Botanical Features of the Algerian Sahara, 1913, by William Austin Cannon, page 61).

Since this sorry article has stymied editors for years, I've decided to boldly turn it into a redirect to Desert pavement. — Gorthian (talk) 05:33, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Alluvial desert/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

* Needs expert attention, and a good definition from a reliable source. -- Paleorthid 14:03, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Last edited at 14:03, 3 December 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 19:44, 1 May 2016 (UTC)