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Researchers have captured exotic wind-blown desert landscapes on Mars, now scientists
have captured an image of Earth that is no less intriguing.
Namib-Naukluft National Park is an ecological
preserve in the Namib Desert in southwest Africa, thought to be Earth’s oldest
desert. The park is the largest game park in Africa, and a surprising collection
of creatures manages to survive in the hyper-arid region, including snakes,
geckos, unusual insects, hyenas, and jackals. More moisture comes in as a fog
off the Atlantic Ocean than falls as rain, with the average 63 millimeters of
rainfall per year concentrated in the months of February and April.
The winds that bring in the fog are also responsible
for creating the park’s towering sand dunes, whose burnt orange color is a sign
of their age. The orange color develops over time as iron in the sand is
oxidized (like rusty metal); the older the dune, the brighter the color. These
dunes are the tallest in the world, in places rising above the desert floor more
than 300 meters (almost 1000 feet). The dunes taper off near the coast, and
lagoons, wetlands, and mudflats located along the shore attract hundreds of
thousands of birds.
This perspective view was created by draping an ASTER
color image over an ASTER-derived Digital Elevation Model of the topography. The
image was acquired October 14, 2002.
CREDIT: NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and
U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
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