I find deserts fascinating.
This is a dry riverbed in Sahara in northern Algeria. Desert streams flow only intermittently when a rare storm hits the desert. Since the desert is bereft of any vegetation, storm water flows downslope violently and can cause deep erosion in a matter of hours. The result is a beautiful fractal-like pattern of drainage. A very similar
dendritic pattern can be seen in growing trees or crystals which are formed not by erosion, but by growth.
Although deserts get little rain, erosion and lack of tree cover makes them ideal for observing water based erosion. These two pictures show watercourse patterns in Sahara. The top picture is from Chad in the Tibesti mountains while the bottom one shows a picture from Ahaggar mountains (Algeria).
This is a pair of start shaped dunes in eastern Algeria. Typical dunes are crescent shaped and they form transverse to prevailing winds. If the prevailing winds are multi-directional, then we begin to see star shaped dunes instead.
These are dunes in Rub-al-Khali (The Empty Quarter) in Saudi Arabia. The dunes are formed orthogonal to the prevailing wind directions.
These dunes are near Sossus Vlei in Namib-Naukluft national park in Namibia. The Namib desert is a temperate desert and has some of the tallest and reddest dunes among all deserts. The red coloration comes from oxidized iron compounds. Sossus Vlei is the remnant of a lake which has dried up and left behind a salty flat. Next to Sossus Vlei is Dead Vlei which is a
spectacular photography location.
Twisted land forms in southern Algeria. My speculation is that this is an ancient lake bed with a dry salt pan at the center.
This is a dry riverbed in Sahara in northern Algeria. Desert streams flow only intermittently when a rare storm hits the desert. Since the desert is bereft of any vegetation, storm water flows downslope violently and can cause deep erosion in a matter of hours. The result is a beautiful fractal-like pattern of drainage. A very similar dendritic pattern can be seen in growing trees or crystals which are formed not by erosion, but by growth.
Although deserts get little rain, erosion and lack of tree cover makes them ideal for observing water based erosion. These two pictures show watercourse patterns in Sahara. The top picture is from Chad in the Tibesti mountains while the bottom one shows a picture from Ahaggar mountains (Algeria).
This is a pair of start shaped dunes in eastern Algeria. Typical dunes are crescent shaped and they form transverse to prevailing winds. If the prevailing winds are multi-directional, then we begin to see star shaped dunes instead.
These are dunes in Rub-al-Khali (The Empty Quarter) in Saudi Arabia. The dunes are formed orthogonal to the prevailing wind directions.
These dunes are near Sossus Vlei in Namib-Naukluft national park in Namibia. The Namib desert is a temperate desert and has some of the tallest and reddest dunes among all deserts. The red coloration comes from oxidized iron compounds. Sossus Vlei is the remnant of a lake which has dried up and left behind a salty flat. Next to Sossus Vlei is Dead Vlei which is a spectacular photography location.
Twisted land forms in southern Algeria. My speculation is that this is an ancient lake bed with a dry salt pan at the center.
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