The Empty Quarter desert in Saudi Arabia Term Paper

The Empty Quarter desert in Saudi Arabia - Term Paper Example According to the paper people also avoid living in this region because it has scarce rainfall, vegetation, and lack of clean water. Hence, the name Rub’ al Khali, which means, the Empty Quarter. In addition, the natural features of the desert such as large sand dunes make it difficult for human beings to live and walk around. The Empty Quarter also has another name, the Great Sandy Desert due to these large sand dunes. People also believe that the Empty Quarter desert evolved during the time of pluvial in the Tertiary and Quaternary. The sand dunes of the Empty Quarter desert emerged from the far end of Miocene and up to the late Pleistocene. There are two main sources of the sand dunes in The Empty Quarter desert.   From this study it is clear that strong winds then moves the accumulated sand to the Empty Quarter desert. This type of sand is characterized by its white color, salty, course, and easy to move. Marine sands cover the eastern and northern parts of the Empty Quarter desert. The ideal source of marine sand found in Empty Quarter desert is Al Gafourah. The strong winds play a vital role in shaping the sand dunes of the Empty Quarter desert. The desert generally slopes from west towards east at a rate of one meter per kilometer. The approximate height above sea level of the sand dunes ranges between nine hundred to one thousand meters. The middle of Empty Quarter desert has is approximately four hundred to five hundred meters above the sea level. The Empty Quarter desert elevation decreases towards the Arabian Gulf. Touring the around the desert, I realized that the Empty Quarter can be divided into five main section considering the types of Sand Dunes. To begin with, there are Barchan D unes, which are large, and high dunes having moist sabkha spread among the dunes. Such dunes exist in northern parts of the Empty Quarter desert. Secondly, there are star dunes, which are steep pyramidal in shape, vertical peaks, formed individually or inter-structural in shapes. Some of the star dunes height reaches as much as two hundred meters. Star dunes mainly cover the southern and eastern parts of the Empty Quarter desert. A good example of star dune is Al G’ad and Ghonaim sand dunes. Thirdly, there are domal dunes characterized by being high and inter-structured. Domal dunes occur at the junction of longitudinal dunes that flow in opposite directions. Some of these dunes have a height of one hundred meters. Domal dunes cover the middle portion of the Empty Quarter desert.