Dust blown off the Sahara crosses the Atlantic and fertilizes the Amazon rainforest

Winds lift millions of tonnes of mineral-rich dust each year from Chad's Bodélé Depression, a former lakebed, and carry it 5,000 miles across the Atlantic. NASA satellite data shows this Saharan dust supplies phosphorus the Amazon's ancient, nutrient-poor soil otherwise lacks, effectively fertilizing one continent's forest with another's desert.

— NASA Earth Observatory, Where Does the Amazon's Fertilizer Come From? — Satellite dust-transport study, 2015