Sogand A. Fard

I was born in the desert city of Kerman (Iran), home to one of the most extreme desert climates to be found anywhere in the world. As a child, I used to accompany my geologist father when he was on assignment investigating underground aquifers in the nearby villages. Together, we searched for colourful sands, stone segments and fossil reminders of the desert’s wet, prehistoric past. My father’s enthusiasm for, and knowledge of, the formation of rocks and plateaus sparked my re-imagining of this arid area as a vast underwater environment, alive with marine organisms. As for the impact of our little expeditions, I became intensely influenced by my father’s interests in the environment and especially in water.

Located in the northeast of Kerman (province), the Lut Desert has been described by NASA as ‘the hottest spot on earth’ recording a temperature of 70.7°C in 2005, the highest surface temperature ever recorded (“What Does It Mean to be Hot?,” 2012). ‘In the Persian language, Lut refers to bare land without water and devoid of vegetation’ (“Lut Desert,” 2016, para. 2). Inspired by my father’s informative narratives and further theoretical research, I started a journey into the deep geological history of Kerman to understand the stages this area went through prior to ending up a desert. As such, my work embodies the radical consequences of a changing climate over deep time.