Ancient rivers and linear dunes decorate the arid landscape.
Published Apr 8, 2013
Sand dunes and outcrops add color and dimension across the Namib Sand Sea.
Published Jan 13, 2020
Linear dunes dominate the landscape of eastern Namibia. Part of the Kalahari Desert, the dunes likely formed more than 10,000 years ago.
Published Dec 4, 2011
Even in China’s largest, driest, and hottest desert, vegetation sprouts in the spring.
Published May 5, 2020
This digital elevation map of the Badain Jaran Desert shows multi-generation dunes, with smaller dunes resting atop larger ones.
Published Apr 20, 2011
The massive dunes and numerous lakes of the Badain Jaran Desert are an enigma to scientists.
Published Nov 22, 2014
Muddy brown water spreads into Australia's Lake Eyre through a triangular delta in this natural-color Landsat image from May 9, 2009. The water transformed the dry basin into a vast inland sea where flocks of birds gathered to breed.
Published May 24, 2009
Layers of dunes march across a sand sea in the east-central Tenéré Desert of Niger in this astronaut photo from December 1, 2009.
Published Dec 28, 2009
Photographs taken by astronauts on the ISS in 2003 and 2013 show the evolution of a dune field in Chad.
Published Dec 9, 2013
Despite efforts by local officials, the desert continues its advance.
Published Feb 19, 2017
Winds shape the sands that were left behind by an ancient river.
Published Jun 4, 2012
In a land with little water, the wind does the landscaping most of the time. Ephemeral water leaves a mark, though.
Published Jul 29, 2018
Fantastic dunes stand alongside one of the world’s largest internally draining river systems.
Published Sep 29, 2019
Long, parallel dunes cross borders in one of Australia’s driest deserts.
Published Oct 16, 2015
One of the main reasons that rainless regions like the Sahara Desert are interesting from the perspective of landscape science is that the work of flowing water—mainly streams and rivers—becomes less important than the work of wind. Over millennia, if enough sand is available, winds can generate dunes of enormous size, arranged in regular patterns. Long, linear dunes stretch generally north to south across much of northeast Algeria, covering a vast tract (~140,000 square kilometers) of the Sahara Desert known as the Erg Oriental. Erg means “dune sea” in Arabic, and the term has been adopted by modern geologists. Spanning this image from a point on the southwest margin of the erg (image center point: 28.9°N 4.8°W) are a series of 2-kilometer-wide linear dunes, comprised of red sand. The dune chains are more than 100 meters high. The “streets” between the dunes are grayer areas free of sand.
Published Sep 11, 2006
