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 (100Nano-, nJ). It is not an SI unit, instead originating from the centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS). Its name is derived from (), a Greek language, Greek word meaning 'work' or ' ...

(sand sea) in

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

's portion of the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

Topography

The Issaouane Erg is located near the

Ahaggar Mountains The Hoggar Mountains (; 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 km2. The Hoggar Mountains are home to ...

. 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 Murzuk, Murzuq, Murzug or Merzug () is an oasis town and the capital of the Murzuq District in the Fezzan region of southwest Libya.Robinson, Harry (1960) "Murzuq" ''The Mediterranean Lands'' University Tutorial Press, London, p. 414 It lies on ...

. 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. Russian naturalist Alexander von Middendorf introduced the term in 1881, working from the occurrence of barchans in Turkestan and in other inland desert regi ...

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 a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

: stationary mega dunes, which can take hundreds of thousands of years to form; mesoscale dunes (including the star dunes), 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 An iron oxide is a chemical compound composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Ferric oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of which is rust. Iron ...

) are ''

sabkha A sabkha () is a predominately coastal, supratidal mudflat or sandflat in which evaporite-saline minerals accumulate as the result of a semiarid to arid climate. Sabkhas are gradational between land and intertidal zone within restricted coast ...

h'', or salt flats, left after the evaporation of accumulated water.

Cultural history

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

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 ...

. Trans-Saharan mercantile routes passed through the region, The most popular of which connected

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis (from , meaning "three cities") may refer to: Places Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in the Pelasgiotis district, Thessaly, near Larissa ...

Taghaza Taghaza () or Teghaza is an abandoned salt-mining centre located in a salt pan in the desert region of northern Mali. It was an important source of rock salt for West Africa up to the end of the 16th century when it was abandoned and replaced by ...

Natural resources

The Issaouane Erg contains oil; the Tifernine oilfield is explored by the Algerian state oil company

Sonatrach Sonatrach (; ) is the national state-owned oil company of Algeria. Founded in 1963, it is known today to be the largest company in Africa with 154 subsidiaries, and often referred as the first African oil "major". In 2021, Sonatrach was the seven ...

, which began developing the oilfield with foreign assistance, including from

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

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.

References

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

Topography

Cultural history

Natural resources

See also

References