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The Issaouane Erg (also called Issaouane-N-Irrararene) is an approximately 38,000 km2
erg The erg is a unit of energy equal to 10−7joules (100 nJ). It originated in the Centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS). It has the symbol ''erg''. The erg is not an SI unit. Its name is derived from (), a Greek word meaning 'work' o ...
(sand sea) in
Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , religi ...
's portion of the
Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...
desert, located at .


Topography

The Issaouane Erg is located near the
Ahaggar Mountains The Hoggar Mountains ( ar, جبال هقار, Berber: ''idurar n Ahaggar'') are a highland region in the central Sahara in southern Algeria, along the Tropic of Cancer. The mountains cover an area of approximately 550,000 km. Geography This ...
. It is part of a major dune field that extends from Issaouane Erg in the north to the Sudanese Erg in the south, flanked by the Libyan erg of Murzuq. In the north, the Issaouane Erg ends at the Tinrhert Plateau and in the south at the Fadnoun Plateau. To a large extent it follows the 500-m contour of the surrounding landscape, ergs mostly being confined to basins. Sand in the Issaouane Erg, below the level of the sand dunes, has accumulated to a depth of 20 to 30 meters. It has
barchan A barchan or barkhan dune (from Kazakh бархан ) is a crescent-shaped dune. The term was introduced in 1881 by Russian naturalist Alexander von Middendorf, based on their occurrence in Turkestan and other inland desert regions. Barchans ...
dunes as well as star dunes of 300 to 430 meters high. The presence of both barchan dunes (which form due to unidirectional winds) and star dunes (which form when winds from various directions deposit sand) "suggests that wind regimes have changed over time". NASA's ''Earth Observatory'' notes all three types of erg dunes are present in the photos of the Issaouane Erg taken from the
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...
: stationary mega dunes, which can take hundreds of thousands of years to form; mesoscale dunes (including the stardunes), which form on the mega dunes; and yet smaller ones which migrate over the bigger ones. In the NASA images, the light-blue spots in the valleys between the dunes (which are red from
iron oxide Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. All are black magnetic solids. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of w ...
) are ''
sabkha A sabkha ( ar, سبخة) is a coastal, supratidal mudflat or sandflat in which evaporite-saline minerals accumulate as the result of semiarid to arid climate. Sabkhas are gradational between land and intertidal zone within restricted coastal p ...
h'', or salt flats, left after the evaporation of accumulated water.


Cultural history

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...
artifacts, sculptures and paintings have been found in the Issouane Erg from the
Kiffian culture The Kiffian culture is a prehistoric industry, or domain, that existed between approximately 8,000 BC and 6,000 BC in the Sahara Desert, during the African humid period referred to as the Neolithic Subpluvial. Human remains from this culture were ...
.


Natural resources

The Issaouane Erg contains oil; the Tifernine oilfield is explored by the Algerian state oil company
Sonatrach Sonatrach ( ar, سوناطراك; french: Société Nationale pour la Recherche, la Production, le Transport, la Transformation, et la Commercialisation des Hydrocarbures) is the national state-owned oil company of Algeria. Founded in 1963, it is ...
, which began developing the oilfield with foreign assistance, including from
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republi ...
and Spain (
Repsol Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31Originally an init ...
signed an agreement to invest and explore in 1990). The oilfield has been in production since late 1998.


See also

*
Geography of Algeria Algeria comprises square kilometers of land, more than 80% of which is desert, in North Africa, between Morocco and Tunisia. It is the largest country in Africa. Its Arabic name, Al Jazair (the islands), is believed to derive from the rocky ...
*
List of ergs In geomorphology, an erg is a large desert region of sand dunes with little or no vegetation,it is divided into 3 parts back erg ,central erg,fore erg, especially in the Sahara. This is a list of ergs around the world. Africa ;Algeria * Grand E ...


References

{{Authority control Landforms of Algeria Ergs of Africa Natural regions of Africa