Erg (Sahara)

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Erg Issaouane , Algeria, Satellite Image Jan 16, 2005
All-terrain vehicle in front of a large dune in the western large Erg in Algeria

As Erg ( Arabic عرق, DMG ʿirq  ' Dune Sea '), in Western Sahara and the Libyan Desert also Edeya , refers to large sand seas and dune fields in the desert regions of the world. They can cover an area of ​​up to 500,000 km 2 and make up about 20 percent of the total desert area. Large ergs are located on the Arabian Peninsula and in the Sahara , where they also cover around 20 percent of the dry area. Some dunes are up to 300 m high.

Erg is also a general term for sandy deserts. The Hammada (stone / rock desert) occupies the largest part of the desert area with around 70 percent. The remaining 10 percent consists of gravel ( Serir ) and mixed surfaces ( Reg ).

The ergs of the Sahara include:

Web links

Commons : Erg (Sahara)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Sandmeer  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
  • Erg - Entry in the Lexicon of Geography on Spektrum.de
  • Erg - entry in the encyclopedia of geosciences on Spektrum.de

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank Press and Raymond Siever: General Geology . 3. Edition. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-8274-0307-3 , pp. 373-378,684 .