The Rub' al Khali
The Arabian Peninsula's Empty Quarter, known as Rub'
al Khali, is the world's largest sand sea, holding about half as much
sand as the Sahara Desert. The Empty Quarter covers 583,000 square
kilometers (225,000 square miles), and stretches over parts of Saudi
Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. The Enhanced Thematic
Mapper on NASA's Landsat 7 satellite captured this image of the Empty
Quarter on August 26, 2001. (NASA/Robert Simmon, Landsat,USGS)
Text and photo from a Boston.com The Big Picture 2009 gallery. More info here.
Why is it the second-largest sand sea, if it's but half the sand of the Sahara? Is the Sahara not a sand sea?
ReplyDeletebecause it has half the sand of the Sahara... if it had more sand then the Sahara it would be the first largest ... if another desert had more sand then Rub al Khali then it would be number two, and Rub al Khali would be number three ... it's science
DeleteI think both of you are missing the point that a "sand sea" is not the same thing as a "desert":
DeleteAn erg (also sand sea or dune sea, or sand sheet if it lacks dunes) is a broad, flat area of desert covered with wind-swept sand with little or no vegetative cover.[1] The term takes its name from the Arabic word ʿarq (عرق), meaning "dune field".[2] Strictly speaking, an erg is defined as a desert area that contains more than 125 km2 (48 sq mi) of aeolian or wind-blown sand[3] and where sand covers more than 20% of the surface.[2] Smaller areas are known as "dune fields".[4] The largest hot desert in the world, the Sahara, covers 9 million square kilometres (3.5×106 sq mi) and contains several ergs, such as the Chech Erg and the Issaouane Erg in Algeria.[5]
Kolo, that is exactly what I meant. I didn't realize the typo, so when I read my question again today, I was wondering what in the world I had meant. THANK YOU!
DeleteWonderful image - that could be almost anything.
ReplyDeleteSince you mentioned the Rub' al Khali, maybe someone can clear up a question that has puzzled me. In a late 1920s British story paper, the hero braves the Rub' al Khali, which is supposedly "known as the Desert of Stones." The author claims the desert isn't made of regular sand but of tiny pebbles. Of course British story papers aren't exactly a source of reliable information, but the specificity of the claim smacked of the author having run across it in research. Anyone ever heard of this?
ReplyDeleteI couldn't say in the case of the Rub' al Khali, but possibly reg (aka desert pavement)? It's a hard, compacted surface of interlocking pebbles that forms when all the sand between the pebbles is blown away. (At least this is the model of formation I learned. Apparently there are new competing models based on some form of heave lifting stones up to form the pavement.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_pavement
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