TMC Net - Found 6 hours ago (Al-Bawaba via COMTEX) -- Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA) today hosted Gilbert Chorosz, Managing Director-EMEA of Corning Cable Systems, one of
Chicago Daily Herald - Found 21 hours ago Crews first responded to a car fire by the tollway oasis on eastbound I-90, according to the Illinois State Police.
Desert Entertainer - Found Mar. 20, 2010 Oasis Country Club Golf For Desert Entertainer I have a golfing buddy who absolutely hates par-3 holes over water.
USA Today - Found Mar. 19, 2010 Few vessels in the history of the cruise business have grabbed as much attention at their debut as Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas -- the ...
PhysOrg.com - Found Mar. 17, 2010 ... ancient oasis dwellers. But Smith is also the 'generic geologist' as she puts it, for the Dakhleh Oasis Project, a long-term study of the oasis... A Blue Mystery - Red Orbit Explore All
Luxist - Found Mar. 16, 2010 More from Miraval Continue reading Miraval: An Oasis in the Desert and in Life Filed under: Spas Miraval: An Oasis in the Desert...
Luxist - Found Mar. 16, 2010 More from Exhale Continue reading Exhale Spa: An Urban Oasis Filed under: Spas Exhale Spa: An Urban Oasis originally appeared on...
Biz Journals - Found Mar. 15, 2010 Oasis Petroleum Inc. bet the future on Big Sky country, investing millions into acquiring shale oil acreage in northern Montana and North Dakota. ...
Luxist - Found Mar. 12, 2010 Spa Montage Beverly Hills: A Modern Day Oasis Filed under: Spas Spa Montage Beverly Hills: A Modern Day Oasis originally appeared on...
This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (December 2009)
In geography, an oasis (plural: oases) or cienega (southwestern United States) is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even humans if the area is big enough.
The location of oases has been of critical importance for trade and transportation routes in desert areas. Caravans must travel via oases so that supplies of water and food can be replenished. Thus, political or military control of an oasis has in many cases meant control of trade on a particular route. For example, the oases of Awjila, Ghadames and Kufra, situated in modern-day Libya, have at various times been vital to both North-South and East-West trade in the Sahara. The word oasis came into English via Greek ὄασις oasis, borrowed directly from Egyptianwḥ3t or Demoticwḥỉ. It was not borrowed from Copticouaḥe (*/waħe/), as is sometimes suggested; the Greek word is attested several centuries before Coptic existed as a written language.citation needed
Oases are formed from underground rivers or aquifers such as an artesian aquifer, where water can reach the surface naturally by pressure or by man made wells. Occasional brief thunderstorms provide subterranean water to sustain natural oases, such as the Tuat. Substrata of impermeable rock and stone can trap water and retain it in pockets; or on long faulting subsurface ridges or volcanic dikes water can collect and percolate to the surface. Any incidence of water is then used by migrating birds who also pass seeds with their droppings which will grow at the water's edge forming an oasis.
People who live in an oasis must manage land and water use carefully; fields must be irrigated to grow plants like dates, figs, olives, and apricots. The most important plant in an oasis is the date palm which forms the upper layer. These palm trees provide shade for smaller trees like peach trees, which form the middle layer. By growing plants in different layers, the farmers make best use of the soil and water. Many vegetables are also grown and some cereals, such as wheat, barley and millet are grown where there is more moisture. 1
Notable oases
Africa
Nile River valley and delta, Egypt, is claimed as the world's biggest oasis by the 2007 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records with a stated area of 22,000 square kilometres.citation needed
Las Vegas Valley, United States, what was once an oasis in the vast Mojave desert has over the years grown into a vibrant metropolitan area of over 1.8 million people, location of the famed Las Vegas Strip. 2
(French) référence: Jardins au désert (Vincent Battesti)|Battesti (Vincent), Jardins au désert, Evolution des pratiques et savoirs oasiens, Jérid tunisien, Paris, Éditions IRD, coll. À travers champs, 2005, 440 p. ISBN 2-7099-1564-2Open Archives: book in free access / in French