The Sahara Feeds the Amazon — From 5,000 Miles Away

Two of Earth's most extreme places are secretly connected by an invisible bridge.

Every year, winds lift millions of tons of dust off the Sahara Desert and carry it across the entire Atlantic Ocean.

Satellites track these colossal dust plumes streaming west for thousands of miles until they settle over the Amazon rainforest.

That dust is loaded with phosphorus — a nutrient the rainforest constantly loses to heavy rains — and much of it traces back to an ancient lakebed once filled with fish whose remains enriched the sediment.

So the world's largest hot desert helps fertilize the world's largest rainforest. Remove one, and the other would slowly starve.