issaouane erg, algeria

ISS010-E-13539_lrg[1], originally uploaded by timon and keely.

this sand sea is located in eastern algeria. ergs are vast areas of moving sand with essentially no vegetation. this issaouane erg is considered to be part of the Sahara Desert and is huge (~ 38,000 km2). these complex dunes form star like shapes at their ridges called star dunes, which may be too hard to see in this small image (but look at bottom right). this is not a satellite image like some of the others i've posted, but an photograph taken january 16, 2005 by an astronaut aboard the international space station with a special kodak 760c digital camera and an 800 mm lens.