Can echoes occur in the desert?

Echo is the result of the reflected sound waves of our voice.

In a pine forest, for example, among many large trees, multiple echoes occur, due to multiple reflections from pine trunks. The reflections of our shout will reach us at different times from different sides.

We will observe the same effect in mountainous areas.

In the desert, on the other hand, there is an open space, where the sound wave simply has nothing to reflect from.

If we assume that we are in a place where there are dunes (sandy hills), then in this case the echo effect will be insignificant.

Because sand is not a hard, elastic material (and this is exactly what is needed for the effect of reflecting a sound wave). It consists of many grains of sand, weakly connected to each other.

Sand, on the other hand, is a good sound absorber. The sound wave will simply “sink”, “get stuck” in it unrequitedly.