Murzuq Desert

Murzuq Desert, Idehan Murzuq, Idhan Murzuq, (also Murzaq, Murzuk, and Murzak), is a primarily erg desert in southwestern Libya. It is considered part of the Sahara desert complex, although it is separated from the southern Sahara by the Tibesti Mountains and the Tassili n'Ajjer.

Sand Sea

Marzuq (Murzuq) Sand Sea, Southwest Libya, as seen from ISS, 2008

This detailed astronaut photograph, taken from low earth orbit, shows classic large and small sand masses of the central Sahara Desert, where wind is a more powerful land-shaping agent than water. “Draa” dunes (from the Arabic for “arm”) are very large masses of sand, and they appear here as the broad network of yellow-orange sand masses, with smooth-floored, almost sand-free basins between them. These sand masses lie in the western part of Libya's vast Marzuq Sand Sea (centered at 24°30′N 12°00′W / 24.5°N 12°W / 24.5; -12). 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: longitudinal dunes , which are more or less parallel with the north winds; transverse dunes, which are usually more curved and formed at right angles to the wind; and 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. ^[1]

Petroleum

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.^[2]

Notes

1. ^ Sand Dunes, Marzuq Sand Sea, Southwest Libya. This article incorporates public domain text from this NASA website.
2. ^ 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, ISBN 0891813551