The Murzuq Desert, Idehan Murzuq, or Idhan Murzuq (also Murzaq, Murzuk, Marzuq and Murzak), is an

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 ' ...

in southwestern

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

with a surface of approximately 58,000 km². It is named after the town of Murzuk in the

Fezzan Fezzan ( , ; ; ; ) is the southwestern region of modern Libya. It is largely desert, but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys (wadis) in the north, where oases enable ancient towns and villages to survive deep in the otherwise in ...

region. Like the Idehan Ubari further north, the Idehan Murzuq is part of the greater

Sahara Desert 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 ...

region. It is separated from the southern Sahara Desert by the

Tibesti Mountains The Tibesti Mountains are a mountain range in the central Sahara, primarily located in the extreme north of Chad, with a small portion located in southern Libya. The highest peak in the range, Emi Koussi, lies to the south at a height of and i ...

and the

Tassili n'Ajjer Tassili n'Ajjer (Berber: ''Tassili n Ajjer'', ; "Plateau of rivers") is a mountain range in the Sahara desert, located in south-eastern Algeria. It holds one of the most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world, and covers an ar ...

Dune pattern

The ''“Draa”''

dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

(from the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

for “arm”) are very large masses of sand in the western part of Libya's vast Murzuq Desert, and they appear in satellite images as a broad network of yellow-orange sand masses, with smooth-floored, almost sand-free basins between them. Geologists think that the ''draa'' of the Marzuq were probably formed by winds different from the prevailing north-northeast winds of today. Numerous smaller dunes have developed on the backs of the ''draa''. Three distinct dune types are visible in satellite images of the region: * Longitudinal dunes, more or less parallel with the north winds. * Transverse dunes, usually more curved and formed at right angles to the wind. * Star dunes, in which several linear arms converge towards a single peak. The upwind sides of the sand masses appear smoother than the downwind side. Wind is moving sand grains almost all the time. This means that the ''draa'' and the dunes are all moving as sand is added on the upwind side and blown off the downwind side. Small sand masses move much faster than large sand masses. The ''draa'' are almost stationary, but the smaller dunes move relatively quickly across their backs. When the smaller dunes reach the downwind side of the ''draa'', they are obliterated; their sand is blown across the basins as individual grains.

Petroleum

Since oil exploration began in 1957, eleven oil fields, including NC186, have been discovered in the Murzuq Basin. Two of the fields are considered giants, and altogether there are more than 2 billion barrels of oil in reserves under the desert there.Rusk, Donald C. (2001) "Libya:Petroleum Potential of the Underexplored Basin Centers – A Twenty-First-Century Challenge" ''In'' Downey, Marlan W.; Threet, Jack C. and Morgan, William A. (2001) ''Petroleum Provinces of the Twenty-first Century'' (AAPG Memoir 74) American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma, pp. 429-452, p. 429,

References

External links

{{Commons-inline, Murzuq Desert
View of the entire Murzuq Desert seen from the International Space Station
Deserts of Libya Fezzan Ergs of Africa Sahara

Dune pattern

Petroleum

See also

References

External links