Image acquired on Dec. 2, 2005 by the ASTER, aboard NASA's Terra Earth-orbiting satellite
Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
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- 1600 x 1200 pixels (JPG, 24 bits per pixel, 449 KB)
- 3656 x 4124 pixels (JPG, 24 bits per pixel, 3.1 MB)
The Arabian Peninsula’s Empty Quarter, known as Rub’ al Khali, is the world’s largest sand sea, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula and holding about half as much sand as the Sahara Desert. The Empty Quarter covers an area larger than France (583,000 square kilometers or 225,000 square miles), and stretches over parts of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
Largely unexplored until recently, the first documented journeys made by Westerners were those of Bertram Thomas in 1931 and St. John Philby in 1932.
Image acquired on Aug. 26, 2001 by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper on NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite
NASA image created by Robert Simmon, using Landsat data provided by the United States Geological Survey
Image acquired on Aug. 26, 2001 by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper on NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite
NASA image created by Robert Simmon, using Landsat data provided by the United States Geological Survey
Available formats:
The area shown resides in southeastern Saudi Arabia, midway between the United Arab Emirates to the north and Oman in the south. Parallel rows of salmon-pink and white alternate to create a rippling pattern. White salt flats, known as sebkhas or sabkhas, separate the dunes. These salt-encrusted plains vary in hardness, in some places creating a surface strong enough to drive a vehicle over, in other places disappearing into sand. The sand dunes soar above the salt plains between them.
Links:
- Webster, D., (2005, February 1). Empty Quarter. National Geographic.
- Wikipedia
- Clark, A., (1989, May/June). Lakes of the Rub' al-Khali. Saudi Aramco World.
- Sights & Sound: The Empty Quarter, A National Geographic virtual tour in the Empty Quarter.
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