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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
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Since oil exploration began in 1957, eleven oil fields 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.
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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.
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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
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are almost stationary, but the smaller dunes move relatively quickly across their backs. When the smaller dunes reach the downwind side of the
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Rusk, Donald C. (2001) "Libya:Petroleum
Potential of the Underexplored Basin Centers – A Twenty-First-Century Challenge"
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of the Marzuq were probably formed by winds different from the prevailing north-northeast winds of today.
341:(AAPG Memoir 74) American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma, pp. 429-452, p. 429,
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View of the entire Murzuq Desert seen from the
International Space Station
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with a surface of approximately 58,000 km. It is named after the town of
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region. It is separated from the southern Sahara Desert by the
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Numerous smaller dunes have developed on the backs of the
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further north, the Idehan Murzuq is part of the greater
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314:Sand Dunes, Marzuq Sand Sea, Southwest Libya.
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109:Map of the topographic features of the Sahara
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54:Marzuq Sand Sea seen from
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93:photograph, taken from
369:at Wikimedia Commons
16:Sandy desert in Libya
58:, 2008 (centered at
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279:Geography of Libya
227:Longitudinal dunes
130: • Total
397:24.750°N 13.000°E
365:Media related to
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89:). Detailed
19:Erg in Libya
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175:. Like the
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77:24.5°N 12°E
415:Categories
290:References
239:Star dunes
206:(from the
31:أدهان مرزق
264:Petroleum
138:Elevation
91:astronaut
324:website.
273:See also
187:and the
82:24.5; 12
388:13°00′E
385:24°45′N
171:in the
115:Country
68:12°00′E
65:24°30′N
436:Sahara
426:Fezzan
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208:Arabic
201:“Draa”
173:Fezzan
169:Murzuk
204:dunes
165:Libya
119:Libya
343:ISBN
322:NASA
258:draa
254:draa
252:The
247:draa
220:draa
213:draa
199:The
147:The
125:Area
161:erg
56:ISS
41:Erg
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335:In
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