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The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher= Britannica Encyclopedia Inc. )〕 It is the fourth largest Australian desert, with an area of 176,500 km2 (68,100 sq mi) and is the world's largest sand dune desert.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Fastest crossing of the Simpson Desert on foot )〕 The desert is underlain by the Great Artesian Basin, one of the largest inland drainage areas in the world. Water from the basin rises to the surface at numerous natural springs, including Dalhousie Springs, and at bores drilled along stock routes, or during petroleum exploration. As a result of exploitation by such bores, the flow of water to springs has been steadily decreasing in recent years. It is also part of the Lake Eyre basin. The Simpson Desert is an erg which contains the world's longest parallel sand dunes.〔Madigan, C.T. 1936. The Australian sand-ridge deserts. The Geographical Review 26(2):205-227.〕 These north-south oriented dunes are static, held in position by vegetation. They vary in height from 3 metres in the west to around 30 metres on the eastern side. The largest dune, Nappanerica, is 40 metres in height. ==History== The explorer Charles Sturt,〔Sturt, C. 1848-49. Narrative of an expedition into central Australia, performed under the authority of Her Majesty's Government, during the years 1844, 5, and 6: together with a notice of the province of South Australia, in 1847. London: T. and W. Boone, 2 vols, 416 pp. and 392 pp.〕 who visited the region from 1844–1846, was the first European to see the desert. In 1880 Augustus Poeppel, a surveyor with the South Australian Survey Department determined the border between Queensland and South Australia to the west of Haddon Corner and in doing so marked the corner point where the States of Queensland and South Australia meet the Northern Territory. After he returned to Adelaide, it was discovered that the links in his surveyor's chain had stretched. Poeppel’s border post was too far west by 300 metres. In 1884, surveyor Larry Wells moved the post to its proper position on the eastern bank of Lake Poeppel. The tri-state border is now known as Poeppel Corner. In January 1886 surveyor David Lindsay ventured into the desert from the western edge, in the process discovering and documenting, with the help of a Wangkangurru Aboriginal man, nine native wells and travelling as far east as the Queensland/Northern Territory border. In 1936 Ted Colson became the first non-indigenous person to cross the desert in its entirety, riding camels. The name Simpson Desert was coined by Cecil Madigan,〔Madigan, C.T. 1930. An aerial reconnaissance into the southeastern portion of central Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch 30:83-108.〕 after Alfred Allen Simpson, an Australian industrialist, philanthropist, geographer, and president of the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. Mr Simpson was the owner of the Simpson washing machine company. In 2006 Lucas Trihey was the first non-indigenous person to walk across the desert through the geographical centre away from vehicle tracks and unsupported. He carried all his equipment in a two-wheeled cart and crossed from East Bore on the western edge of the desert to Birdsville in the east. In 2008, Michael Giacometti completed the first, and only, east-to-west walk across the Simpson Desert. Starting at Bedourie in Queensland, he walked solo and unsupported, towing all his equipment, food and water in a two-wheeled cart to Old Andado homestead.〔AdventurePro, ("Adventurer emerges from the Simpson Desert to complete the first east-to-west foot crossing" ), 25 July 2008〕〔Giacometti, M. 2009. Traversing Sturt's Hell. ''Wild 112'':18-23〕 Also in 2008, Belgian Louis-Philippe Loncke became the first non-indigenous person to complete a north-south crossing of the desert on foot and unsupported and through the geographical centre,.〔Herald Sun, ("If the desert doesn't get you, the camels might" ), 23 August 2008〕〔The Monitor, p7, ("36 days alone in the desert" ), 28 August 2008〕〔Sudpresse Archive, ("800km en 35 jours" ), 17 November July 2008〕 In 1967, the Queensland Government established the Simpson Desert National Park. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Simpson Desert」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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