U.S. Department of the Interior/U.S.

Geological Survey

Deserts: :
Geology and Resource!

siSI

*
Beauty is before me
And beauty behind me,
Above and below me hovers the beautiful,
I am surrounded by it,
I am immersed in it.
In my youth I am aware of it,
And in old age
I shall walk quietly
The beautiful trail.

from a Navajo benedictory chant describing the desert

Deserts:
Geology and Resources

by A.S. Walker

Great Sand Dunes National Monument, Colorado (photograph by John Keith).

Cacti dominate the Sonoran Desert vegetation near Tucson, Arizona (photograph by
Peter Kresan).
What Is a Desert?

A
pproximately one-third of the Earth's land
surface is desert, arid land with meager
rainfall that supports only sparse vegeta-
tion and a limited population of people and
animals. Deserts stark, sometimes mysterious
worlds have been portrayed as fascinating en-
vironments of adventure and exploration from
narratives such as that of Lawrence of Arabia to
movies such as "Dune." These arid regions are
called deserts because they are dry. They may
be hot, they may be cold. They may be regions
of sand or vast areas of rocks and gravel pep- Ripples on a dune in the
pered with occasional plants. But deserts are Gran Desierto, Mexico (photo-
graph by Peter Kresan).
always dry.
Deserts are natural laboratories in which to
study the interactions of wind and sometimes
water on the arid surfaces of planets. They con-
tain valuable mineral deposits that were formed
in the arid environment or that were exposed by
erosion. Because deserts are dry, they are ideal
places for human artifacts and fossils to be pre-
served. Deserts are also fragile environments.
The misuse of these lands is a serious and grow-
ing problem in parts of our world.
There are almost as many definitions of deserts
and classification systems as there are deserts in
the world. Most classifications rely on some com-

DISTRIBUTION
OF NON-POLAR ARID LAND
(after Meigs, 1953)
bination of the number of days of rainfall, the total
amount of annual rainfall, temperature, humidity,
or other factors. In 1953, Peveril Meigs divided
desert regions on Earth into three categories ac-
cording to the amount of precipitation they re-
ceived. In this now widely accepted system, ex-
tremely arid lands have at least 12 consecutive
months without rainfall, arid lands have less than
250 millimeters of annual rainfall, and semiarid
lands have a mean annual precipitation of be-
tween 250 and 500 millimeters. Arid and ex-
tremely arid land are deserts, and semiarid
grasslands generally are referred to as steppes.
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Gran Desierto of the Sonoran Desert, Mexico. Surrounding the dark 25-kilometer-long and
5-kilometer-wide Sierra del Rosario mountains (upper right) are dunes and sheets of sand.
How the Atmosphere
Influences Aridity

W e live at the bottom of a gaseous

envelope the atmosphere that is
bound gravitationally to the planet
Earth. The circulation of our atmosphere is a
complex process because of the Earth's rotation
and the tilt of its axis. The Earth's axis is in-
clined 23 1/2° from the ecliptic, the plane of the
Earth's orbit around the Sun. Due to this inclina-
tion, vertical rays of the Sun strike 23 1/2° N.
latitude, the Tropic of Cancer, at summer sol-
stice in late June. At winter solstice, the vertical
rays strike 23 1/2° S. latitude, the Tropic of Cap-
ricorn. In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer
solstice day has the most daylight hours, and the
winter solstice has the fewest daylight hours
each year. The tilt of the axis allows differential
heating of the Earth's surface, which causes
seasonal changes in the global circulation.
On a planetary scale, the circulation of air be-
tween the hot Equator and the cold North and
South Poles creates pressure belts that influence

POLAR HIGH
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The circulation pattern of the

Earth's atmosphere. Most of
SOUTH POLE
the nonpolar deserts lie with-
in the two trade winds belts.
weather. Air warmed by the Sun rises at the Equa-
tor, cools as it moves toward the poles, descends
as cold air over the poles, and warms again as it
moves over the surface of the Earth toward the
Equator. This simple pattern of atmospheric con-
vection, however, is complicated by the rotation
of the Earth, which introduces the Coriolis Effect.
To appreciate the origin of this effect, consider
the following. A stick placed vertically in the
ground at the North Pole would simply turn
around as the Earth rotates. A stick at the
Equator would move in a large circle of almost
40,000 kilometers with the Earth as it rotates.
The Coriolis Effect illustrates Newton's first law
of motion a body in motion will maintain its
speed and direction of motion unless acted on by
some outside force. Thus, a wind travelling north
from the equator will maintain the velocity ac-
quired at the equator while the Earth under it is
moving slower. This effect accounts for the gen-
erally east-west direction of winds, or streams of
air, on the Earth's surface. Winds blow between
areas of different atmospheric pressures.
The Coriolis Effect influences the circulation
pattern of the Earth's atmosphere. In the zone
between about 30° N. and 30° S., the surface air
flows toward the Equator and the flow aloft is
poleward. A low-pressure area of calm, light
variable winds near the equator is known to
mariners as the doldrums.
Around 30° N. and S., the poleward flowing air
begins to descend toward the surface in subtrop-
ical high-pressure belts. The sinking air is rela-
tively dry because its moisture has already been
released near the Equator above the tropical rain
forests. Near the center of this high-pressure zone
of descending air, called the "Horse Latitudes,"
the winds at the surface are weak and variable.
The name for this area is believed to have been
given by colonial, sailors, who, becalmed some-
times at these latitudes while crossing the oceans
with horses as cargo, were forced to throw a few
horses overboard to conserve water.
The surface air that flows from these subtropical
high-pressure belts toward the Equator is deflect-
ed toward the west in both hemispheres by the
Coriolis Effect. Because winds are named for the
direction from which the wind is blowing, these
winds are called the northeast trade winds in the
Northern Hemisphere and the southeast trade
winds in the Southern Hemisphere. The trade
winds meet at the doldrums. Surface winds known
as "westerlies" flow from the Horse Latitudes to-
ward the poles. The "westerlies" meet "easter-
lies" from the polar highs at about 50-60° N. and S.
Near the ground, wind direction is affected by
friction and by changes in topography. Winds
may be seasonal, sporadic, or daily. They range
from gentle breezes to violent gusts at speeds
greater than 300 kilometers/hour.

These dunes in the Algodones Sand Sea of southeastern California move as much as 5
meters per year. The dunes in this photograph, looking south, move toward the east (left)
(photograph by Peter Kresan).
Searles Lake, California (photograph courtesy of Kerr-McGee, Inc.).

10
Where Deserts Form

D
ry areas created by global circulation
patterns contain most of the deserts on
the Earth. The deserts of our world are
not restricted by latitude, longitude, or elevation.
They occur from areas close to the poles down
to areas near the Equator. The People's Republic
of China has both the highest desert, the Qaidam
Depression that is 2,600 meters above sea level,
and one of the lowest deserts, the Turpan
Depression that is 150 meters below sea level.
Deserts are not confined to Earth. The atmos-
pheric circulation patterns of other terrestrial plan-
ets with gaseous envelopes also depend on the
rotation of those planets, the tilts of their axes,
their distances from the Sun, and the composi-
tion and density of their atmospheres. Except for
the poles, the entire surface of Mars is a desert.
Venus also may support deserts.

The Garlock fault, near the bottom of this Landsat image, is generally considered to be the
geologic border between the Mojave Desert in the south and the Great Basin Desert in the
north. The Great Basin contains more than 150 discrete desert basins separated by more than
160 mountain ranges.

11
Types of Deserts

D eserts are classified by their geographical

location and dominant weather pattern as
trade wind, midlatitude, rain shadow,
coastal, monsoon, or polar deserts. Former des-
ert areas presently in nonarid environments are
paleodeserts, and extraterrestrial deserts exist on
other planets.
."" ' . N .

Trade wind deserts

The trade winds in two belts on the equatorial
sides of the Horse Latitudes heat up as they
move toward the Equator. These dry winds dis-
sipate cloud cover, allowing more sunlight to
heat the land. Most of the major deserts of the
world lie in areas crossed by the trade winds.
The world's largest desert, the Sahara of North
Africa, which has experienced temperatures as
high as 57° G, is a trade wind desert.

Midlatitude deserts
Midlatitude deserts occur between 30° and 50°
N. and S., poleward of the subtropical high-
pressure zones. These deserts are in interior
drainage basins far from oceans and have a
wide range of annual temperatures. The Sohoran
Desert of southwestern North America- is a
typical midlatitude desert. -

Rain shadow deserts

Rain shadow deserts are formed because tall
.mountain ranges prevent moisture-rich clouds
from reaching areas on the lee, or protected
side, of the range. As air rises over the moun-
tain, water is precipitated and the air loses its
moisture content. A desert is formed in the lee-
side "shadow" of the range.

12
The Sahara of Africa is the
world's largest desert. It con-
tains complex linear dunes
that are separated by almost
6 kilometers (Skylab
photograph).

A rare rain in the Tengger, a

midlatitude desert of China,
exposes ripples and a small
blowout on the left. Winds
will shortly cover or remove
these features.

This Landsat image shows

the Turpan Depression in
the rain shadow desert of
the Tian Shan of China. A
sand sea is in the lower cen-
ter on the right, but desert
pavement, gray in color,
dominates this desert. The
few oases in the desert and
the vegetation in the moun-
tains at the top are in red. A
blanket of snow separates
the vegetation in the Tian
Shan from the rain shadow
desert.

13
Coastal deserts
Coastal deserts generally are found on the
western edges of continents near the Tropics of
Cancer and Capricorn. They are affected by cold
ocean currents that parallel the coast. Because
local wind systems dominate the trade winds,
these deserts are less stable than other deserts.
Winter fogs, produced by upwelling cold currents,
frequently blanket coastal deserts and block solar
radiation. Coastal deserts are relatively complex
because they are at the juncture of terrestrial,
oceanic, and atmospheric systems. A coastal
desert, the Atacama of South America, is the
Earth's driest desert. In the Atacama, measur-
able rainfall 1 millimeter or more of rain may
occur as infrequently as once every 5-20 years.

Crescent-shaped dunes are common in coastal deserts such as the Namib, Africa, with
prevailing onshore winds. Low clouds cover parts of the Namib in this space shuttle photo.

14
High dunes of the Namib desert near Sossus Viei (photograph by Georg Gerster).

Morning fog moistens the dunes of the Namib coastal desert (photograph by Georg Gerster).

15
Monsoon deserts
"Monsoon," derived from an Arabic word for
"season," refers to a wind system with pro-
nounced seasonal reversal. Monsoons develop in
response to temperature variations between con-
tinents and oceans. The southeast trade winds
The Indus River floodplain, of the Indian Ocean, for example, provide heavy
lower left, is the western summer rains in India as they move onshore. As
border of the Thar Desert.
This Landsat image of the the monsoon crosses India, it loses moisture on
monsoon desert shows small the eastern slopes of the Aravalli Range. The
patches of sand sheets in Rajasthan Desert of India and the Thar Desert of
the upper right, with three
types of dunes; some dunes Pakistan are parts of a monsoon desert region
are almost 3 kilometers long. west of the range.

16
Polar deserts
Polar deserts are areas with annual precipita-
tion less than 250 millimeters and a mean
temperature during the warmest month of less
than 10° C. Polar deserts on the Earth cover
nearly 5 million square kilometers and are mostly
bedrock or gravel plains. Sand dunes are not
prominent features in these deserts, but snow
dunes occur commonly in areas where precipita-
tion is locally more abundant.
Temperature changes in polar deserts frequent- The Dry Valleys of Antarctica
ly cross the freezing point of water. This "freeze- have been ice-free for thou-
sands of years (courtesy of
thaw" alternation forms patterned textures on the USGS Image Processing
ground, as much as 5 meters in diameter. Facility, Flagstaff, Arizona).

17
Paleodeserts
Data on ancient sand seas (vast regions of
sand dunes), changing lake basins, archaeology,
and vegetation analyses indicate that climatic
conditions have changed considerably over vast
areas of the Earth in the recent geologic past.
During the last 12,500 years, for example, parts
This aerial photograph of the
Nebraska Sand Hills paleo- of the deserts were more arid than they are to-
desert shows a well-preserved day. About 10 percent of the land between 30°
crescent-shaped dune (or N. and 30° S. is covered now by sand seas.
barchan) about 60 to 75
meters high (photograph by Nearly 18,000 years ago, sand seas in two vast
Thomas S. Ahlbrandt). belts occupied almost 50 percent of this land

18
area. As is the case today, tropical rain forests A dry community of vegeta-
and savannahs were between the two belts. tion grows among the dunes
of the Nebraska Sand Hills
Fossil desert sediments that are as much as (photograph by N. H. Darton).
500 million years old have been found in many
parts of the world. Sand dune-like patterns have
been recognized in presently nonarid environ-
ments. Many such relict dunes now receive from
80 to 150 millimeters of rain each year. Some
ancient dunes are in areas now occupied by
tropical rain forests.
The Nebraska Sand Hills is an inactive 57,000-
square kilometer dune field in central Nebraska.
The largest sand sea in the Western Hemisphere,
it is now stabilized by vegetation and receives
about 500 millimeters of rain each year. Dunes in
the Sand Hills are up to 120 meters high.

19
Extraterrestrial deserts
Mars is the only other planet on which we
have identified wind-shaped (eolian) features.
Although its surface atmospheric pressure is only
about one-hundredth that of Earth, global circu-
lation patterns on Mars have formed a circum-
This Viking spacecraft image polar sand sea of more than five million square
of Mars shows alternating kilometers, an area greater than the Empty Quar-
layers of ice and windblown ter of Saudi Arabia, the largest sand sea on our
dust near the north polar
cap. Annual and other peri- planet. Martian sand seas consist predominantly
odic climatic changes due to of crescent-shaped dunes on plains near the per-
orbit fluctuations may occur ennial ice cap of the north polar area. Smaller
on Mars (courtesy of USGS
Image Processing Facility, dune fields occupy the floors of many large
Flagstaff, Arizona). craters in the polar regions.

20
One of the first images taken at the Viking 2 landing site on Mars shows the pink sky over
Utopia and the desert pavement on the ground (courtesy of NASA).

'V-
i

Some of the crescent-shaped dunes in this Viking image of Mars are more than a kilometer
wide. The dark material that streaks from the horn-shaped features may be dust recently
blown from the dunes (courtesy of NASA).

21
Natural Bridge, Arches National Monument, Utah (photograph by Peter Kresan).

22
Desert Features

S and covers only about 20 percent of the

Earth's deserts. Most of the sand is in
sand sheets and sand seas vast re-
gions of undulating dunes resembling ocean
waves "frozen" in an instant of time.
Nearly 50 percent of desert surfaces are plains
where eolian deflation removal of fine-grained
material by the wind has exposed loose gravels
consisting predominantly of pebbles but with oc-
casional cobbles.
The remaining surfaces of arid lands are com-
posed of exposed bedrock outcrops, desert soils,
and fluvial deposits including alluvial fans, playas,
desert lakes, and oases. Bedrock outcrops com-
monly occur as small mountains surrounded by
extensive erosional plains.
Oases are vegetated areas moistened by
springs, wells, or by irrigation. Many are artificial.
Oases are often the only places in deserts that
support crops and permanent habitation.

'<*..'_

It-

Underground channels carry water from nearby mountains into the Turpan Depression of
China. If the channels were not covered, the water would evaporate quickly when it reached
the hot, dry desert land.

23
Soils
Soils that form in arid climates are predomi-
nantly mineral soils with low organic content.
The repeated accumulation of water in some
soils causes distinct salt layers to form. Calcium
carbonate precipitated from solution may cement
sand and gravel into hard layers called "calcrete"
that form layers up to 50 meters thick.
Caliche is a reddish-brown to white layer found
in many desert soils. Caliche commonly occurs
as nodules or as coatings on mineral grains
formed by the complicated interaction between
water and carbon dioxide released by plant roots
or by decaying organic material.

Plants
Most desert plants are drought- or salt-tolerant.
Some store water in their leaves, roots, and
stems. Other desert plants have long tap roots
that penetrate the water table, anchor the soil,
and control erosion. The stems and leaves of
Sparse, very dry, single
some plants lower the surface velocity of sand-
species vegetation in Death carrying winds and protect the ground from
Valley, California. erosion.

24
Deserts typically have a plant cover that is Vegetation amidst the desert
pavement of the Sonoran
sparse but enormously diverse. The Sonoran Desert, (photograph by
Desert of the American Southwest has the most John Olsen).
complex desert vegetation on Earth. The giant
saguaro cacti provide nests for desert birds and
serve as "trees" of the desert. Saguaro grow
slowly but may live 200 years. When 9 years old,
they are about 15 centimeters high. After about
75 years, the cacti are tall and develop their first
branches. When fully grown, saguaro are 15
meters tall and weigh as much as 10 tons. They
dot the Sonoran and reinforce the general im-
pression of deserts as cacti-rich land.
Although cacti are often thought of as charac-
teristic desert plants, other types of plants have
adapted well to the arid environment. They in-
clude the pea family and sunflower family. Cold
deserts have grasses and shrubs as dominant
vegetation.

25
Water
Rain does fall occasionally in deserts, and
desert storms are often violent. A record 44
millimeters of rain once fell within 3 hours in the
Sahara. Large Saharan storms may deliver up to
1 millimeter per minute. Normally dry stream
channels, called arroyos or wadis, can quickly fill
after heavy rains, and flash floods make these
channels dangerous. More people drown in
deserts than die of thirst.
Though little rain falls in deserts, deserts
receive runoff from ephemeral, or short-lived,
streams fed by rain and snow from adjacent
highlands. These streams fill the channel with a
slurry of mud and commonly transport consider-
able quantities of sediment for a day or two. Al-
though most deserts are in basins with closed,
or interior drainage, a few deserts are crossed
by 'exotic' rivers that derive their water from out-
side the desert. Such rivers infiltrate soils and
evaporate large amounts of water on their
journeys through the deserts, but their volumes
are such that they maintain their continuity. The
Nile, the Colorado, and the Yellow are exotic
The Wei River in the Loess
Plateau, China (photograph rivers that flow through deserts to deliver their
by l-Ming Chou). sediments to the sea.
Lakes form where rainfall or meltwater in in- Running water created this
terior drainage basins is sufficient. Desert lakes canyon in arid Big Bend Na-
tional Park, southwest Texas.
are generally shallow, temporary, and salty. Be-
cause these lakes are shallow and have a low
bottom gradient, wind stress may cause the lake
waters to move over many square kilometers.
When small lakes dry up, they leave a salt crust
or hardpan. The flat area of clay, silt, or sand
encrusted with salt that forms is known as a
playa. There are more than a hundred playas in
North American deserts. Most are relics of large
lakes that existed during the last Ice Age about
12,000 years ago. Lake Bonneville was a
52,000-square-kilometer lake almost 300 meters
deep in Utah, Nevada, and Idaho during the Ice
Age. Today the remnants of Lake Bonneville in-
clude Utah's Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake, and
Sevier Lake. Because playas are arid land forms
from a wetter past, they contain useful clues to
climatic change.
The flat terrains of hardpans and playas make
them excellent race tracks and natural runways
for airplanes and spacecraft. Ground-vehicle
speed records are commonly established on Bon-
neville Speedway, a race track on the Great Salt
Lake hardpan. Space shuttles land on Rogers
Lake Playa at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

27
The Qaidam Depression in China is the highest desert in the world. This Landsat image
lustrates a salt lake and evaporite basins in the depression.

28
Eolian Processes

E
olian processes pertain to the activity of
the winds. Winds may erode, transport,
and deposit materials, and are effective
agents in regions with sparse vegetation and a
large supply of unconsolidated sediments.
Although water is much more powerful than
wind, eolian processes are important in arid
environments.

Eolian erosion
Wind erodes the Earth's surface by deflation,
the removal of loose, fine-grained particles by
the turbulent eddy action of the wind, and by
abrasion, the wearing down of surfaces by the
grinding action and sand blasting of windborne
particles.
Most eolian deflation zones are composed of
desert pavement, a sheetlike surface of rock
fragments that remains after wind and water
have removed the fine particles. Almost half of
The sand and rock of China's
the Earth's desert surfaces are stony deflation Turpan Depression resemble
zones. The rock mantle in desert pavements pro- closely those in the view of the
tects the underlying material from deflation. Martian surface on page 21.

29
*W'.=i/"*5
*s«r
The arrow points to shiny A dark, shiny stain, called desert varnish or
black desert varnish on rock varnish, is often found on surfaces of some
these rocks of Egypt's south-
desert rocks that have been exposed at the sur-
west desert (photograph by
Carol Breed).
face for a long period of time. Manganese, iron
oxides, hydroxides, and clay minerals form most
varnishes and provide the shine.
Deflation basins, called blowouts, are hollows
formed by the removal of particles by wind. Blow-
outs are generally small, but may be up to sever-
al kilometers in diameter.
Wind-driven grains abrade landforms. Grinding
by particles carried in the wind creates grooves
or small depressions. Ventifacts are rocks which
have been cut, and sometimes polished, by the
abrasive action of wind.
Sculpted landforms, called yardangs, are up to
tens of meters high and kilometers long and are
forms that have been streamlined by desert
winds. The famous sphinx at Giza in Egypt may
be a modified yardang.

30
Yardangs of the Lut Desert of Iran. View from Landsat (A), from high-altitude photograph (B),
and from low-altitude photograph (C). These yardangs are among the largest on Earth, with
almost 100 meters of relief (low altitude photograph by J.T. Daniels, aerial photograph by U.S.
Air Force).

31
Eolian transportation
Particles are transported by winds through
suspension, saltation, and creep.
Small particles may be held in the atmosphere
in suspension. Upward currents of air support the
weight of suspended particles and hold them in-
definitely in the surrounding air. Typical winds
near the Earth's surface suspend particles less
than 0.2 millimeters in diameter and scatter them
aloft as dust or haze.
Saltation is downwind movement of particles in
a series of jumps or skips. Saltation normally lifts
sand-size particles no more than one centimeter
above the ground, and proceeds at one-half to
one-third the speed of the wind. A saltating grain
may hit other grains that jump up to continue the
saltation. The gram may also hit larger grains
that are too heavy to hop, but that slowly creep
forward as they are pushed by saltating grains.
Surface creep accounts for as much as 25 per-
cent of grain movement in a desert.
Eolian turbidity currents are better known as
dust storms. Air over deserts is cooled signifi-
cantly when rain passes through it. This cooler
and denser air sinks toward the desert surface.
When it reaches the ground, the air is deflected
forward and sweeps up surface debris in its tur-
bulence as a dust storm.
Saltation moves small par- Crops, people, villages, and possibly even cli-
ticles in the direction of the
wind in a series of short mates are affected by dust storms. Some dust
hops or skips. storms are intercontinental, a few may circle the

Wind direction

32
globe, and occasionally they may engulf entire Dust storm along the Mo-
planets. When the Mariner 9 spacecraft arrived have River near Daggett,
California, October 24, 1919
at Mars in 1971, the entire planet was enshroud- (photograph by D.G. Thomp-
ed in global dust. son).
Most of the dust carried by dust storms is in
the form of silt-size particles. Deposits of this
windblown silt are known as loess. The thickest
known deposit of loess, 335 meters, is on the
Loess Plateau in China. In Europe and in the
Americas, accumulations of loess are generally
from 20 to 30 meters thick.
Small whirlwinds, called dust devils, are com-
mon in arid lands and are thought to be related
to very intense local heating of the air that
results in instabilities of the air mass. Dust devils
may be as much as one kilometer high.

33
Eolian deposition
Wind-deposited materials hold clues to past as
well as to present wind directions and intensities.
These features help us understand the present
climate and the forces that molded it. Wind-
deposited sand bodies occur as sand sheets, rip-
ples, and dunes.
Sand sheets are flat, gently undulating sandy
plots of sand surfaced by grains that may be too
large for saltation. They form approximately 40
percent of eolian depositional surfaces. The
Selima Sand Sheet, which occupies 60,000
square kilometers in southern Egypt and northern
Sudan, is one of the Earth's largest sand sheets.
The Selima is absolutely flat in some places; in
others, active dunes move over its surface.
Wind blowing on a sand surface ripples the
surface into crests and troughs whose long axes
are perpendicular to the wind direction. The
average length of jumps during saltation cor-
responds to the wavelength, or distance between
Wind-blown sand moves up
the gentle upwind side of adjacent crests, of the ripples. In ripples, the
the dune by saltation or coarsest materials collect at the crests. This
creep. Sand accumulates at distinguishes small ripples from dunes, where
the brink, the top of the slip-
face. When the buildup of the coarsest materials are generally in the
sand at the brink exceeds troughs.
the angle of repose, a small Accumulations of sediment blown by the wind
avalanche of grains slides
down the slipface. Grain by into a mound or ridge, dunes have gentle upwind
grain, the dune moves slopes on the wind-facing side. The downwind
downwind. portion of the dune, the lee slope, is commonly a

zone of
stagnant

angle of
repose
L

34
steep avalanche slope referred to as a slipface.
Dunes may have more than one slipface. The
minimum height of a slipface is about 30
centimeters.
Sand grains move up the dune's gentle up-
wind slope by saltation and creep. When par-
ticles at the brink of the dune exceed the angle
of repose, they spill over in a tiny landslide or
avalanche that reforms the slipface. As the
avalanching continues, the dune moves in the
direction of the wind.
Some of the most significant experimental
measurements on eolian sand movement were
performed by Ralph Bagnold, a British engineer
who worked in Egypt prior to World War II.
Bagnold investigated the physics of particles
moving through the atmosphere and deposited
by wind. He recognized two basic dune types,
the crescentic dune, which he called "barchan,"
and the linear dune, which he called longitudinal
or "sief" (Arabic for "sword").

Sand dunes in Death Valley, California (photograph by Richard Frear).

35
Ripples on a dune in Eureka Valley, California (photograph by Terrence Moore).

36
Types of Dunes

A
worldwide inventory of deserts has been
developed using images from the Land-
sat satellites and from space and aerial
photography. It defines five basic types of dunes:
crescentic, linear, star, dome, and parabolic.
The most common dune form on Earth and on
Mars is the crescentic. Crescent-shaped mounds
generally are wider than long. The slipface is on
the dune's concave side. These dunes form
under winds that blow from one direction, and
they also are known as barchans, or transverse
dunes. Some types of crescentic dunes move
faster over desert surfaces than any other type These crescentic dunes of
coastal Peru are migrating
of dune. A group of dunes moved more than 100 toward the left (photograph
meters per year between 1954 and 1959 in by John McCauley).

37
China's Ningxia Province; similar rates have been
recorded in the Western Desert of Egypt. The
largest crescentic dunes on Earth, with mean
crest-to-crest widths of more than 3 kilometers,
are in China's Taklimakan Desert.
Straight or slightly sinuous sand ridges typically
much longer than they are wide are known as
linear dunes. They may be more than 160 kilo-
meters long. Linear dunes may occur as isolated
ridges, but they generally form sets of parallel
ridges separated by miles of sand, gravel, or
rocky interdune corridors. Some linear dunes
merge to form Y-shaped compound dunes. Many
form in bidirectional wind regimes. The long axes
of these dunes extend in the resultant direction
of sand movement.
Radially symmetrical, sfar dunes are pyramidal
sand mounds with slipfaces on three or more
arms that radiate from the high center of the
mound. They tend to accumulate in areas with
multidirectional wind regimes. Star dunes grow

Star dunes, such as these of the Namib, indicate the winds that formed them blew from
many directions (photograph by Georg Gerster).

38
Linear dunes advance on
small playas east of Lake
Eyre in the Simpson Desert
of central Australia (photo-
graph by C. Twidale).

Linear dunes in the western desert of Egypt (photograph by Carol Breed).

39
upward rather than laterally. They dominate the
Grand Erg Oriental of the Sahara. In other
deserts, they occur around the margins of the
sand seas, particularly near topographic barriers.
In the southeast Badain Jaran Desert of China,
the star dunes are up to 500 meters tall and may
be the tallest dunes on Earth.
Oval or circular mounds that generally lack a
slipface, dome dunes are rare and occur at the
far upwind margins of sand seas.
U-shaped mounds of sand with convex noses
trailed by elongated arms are parabolic dunes.
Sometimes these dunes are called U-shaped,
blowout, or hairpin dunes, and they are well
known in coastal deserts. Unlike crescentic
dunes, their crests point upwind. The elongated
arms of parabolic dunes follow rather than lead
because they have been fixed by vegetation,
while the bulk of the sand in the dune migrates
forward. The longest known parabolic dune has
a trailing arm 12 kilometers long.

Small crescentic dunes occur on the crests of these complex dome dunes of Saudi Arabia's
Empty Quarter (photograph by Elwood Friesen).

40
Ripples and horns of this crescentic dune in Egypt indicate that the dune is moving right to
left (photograph by John Olsen).

Occurring wherever winds periodically reverse

direction, reversing dunes are varieties of any of
the above types. These dunes typically have ma-
jor and minor slipfaces oriented in opposite
directions.
All these dune types may occur in three forms:
simple, compound, and complex. Simple dunes
are basic forms with a minimum number of slip-
faces that define the geometric type. Compound
dunes are large dunes on which smaller dunes
of similar type and slipface orientation are
superimposed, and complex dunes are combina-
tions of two or more dune types. A crescentic
dune with a star dune superimposed on its crest
is the most common complex dune. Simple
dunes represent a wind regime that has not
changed in intensity or direction since the forma-
tion of the dune, while compound and complex
dunes suggest that the intensity and direction of
the wind has changed.

41
to.

The northern Mojave Desert. The Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) acquires data in seven bands
of the electromagnetic spectrum. On this image, white and yellow colors indicate rocks rich in
clay minerals and limonite in rocks of red and yellow hues. The large concentrations of limonite
and clays may indicate mineral deposits exposed at the surface or buried up to several thousand
feet below it (photograph courtesy of Met Podwysocki).

42
Remote Sensing of
Arid Lands

T he world's deserts are generally remote,

inaccessible, and inhospitable. Hidden
among them, however, are hydrocarbon
reservoirs, evaporites, and other mineral depos-
its, as well as human artifacts preserved for
centuries by the arid climate. In these harsh en-
vironments, the information and perspective re-
quired to increase our understanding of arid-land
geology and resources often depends on remote-
sensing methods. Remote sensing is the collec-
tion of information about an object without being
in direct physical contact with it.
Remote-sensing instruments in Earth-orbit satel-
lites measure radar, visible light, and infrared radi-
ation. Radar imaging systems provide their own
source of electromagnetic energy, so they can
operate at any time of day or night. Additionally,
clouds and all but the most severe storms are
transparent to radar.
The first Shuttle Imaging Radar System (SIR-A),
flown on the U.S. space shuttle Columbia in
1981, recorded images that show buried fluvial
topography, faults, and intrusive bodies other-
wise concealed beneath sand sheets and dunes
of the Western Desert in Egypt and the Sudan.
Most of these features are not visible from the
ground. The radar signal penetrated loose dry
sands and returned images of buried river chan-
nels not visible at the surface. These images
helped find new archeologic sites and sources of
potable water in the desert. These "radar rivers"
are the remnants of a now vanished major river
system that flowed across Africa some 20 million
years before the development of the Nile River
system. Radar imagery also is a powerful tool for
exploring for placer mineral deposits in arid lands.
In 1972, the United States launched the first of
a group of unmanned satellites collectively known
as Landsat. Landsat satellites carry sensors that

43
The Landsat simulated true color mosaic (left) shows the Selima Sand Sheet covering all but
rocky areas of the Sahara Desert in Sudan. On the right, a 50-kilometer-wide strip of Shuttle
Imaging Radar, SIR-A, is placed over the Landsat mosaic to reveal old stream channels and
geologic structures like these. Structures that are otherwise invisible under the surface sands
are potential sources of water, placer minerals, ancient artifacts, and information on changes
of climate in arid areas (courtesy of USGS Image Processing Facility, Flagstaff).

44
record "light," or portions of the electromagnetic
spectrum, as it reflects off the Earth. Landsat ac-
quires digital data that are converted into an
image.
The scarcity of vegetation makes spectral
remote sensing especially effective in arid lands.
Rocks containing limonite, a hydrous iron oxide,
may be identified readily from Landsat Multispec-
tral Scanner data. The Landsat Thematic Mapper
(TM) has increased our ability to detect and map
the distribution of minerals in volcanic rocks and
related mineral deposits in arid and semiarid lands.
More than a million images of Earth have been
acquired by the Landsat satellites. A Landsat im-
age may be viewed as a single band in black-
and-white, or as a combination represented by
three colors, called a color composite. The most
widely used Landsat color image is called a false-
color composite because it reproduces the in-
frared band (invisible to the naked eye) as red,
the red band as green, and the green band as
blue. Healthy vegetation in a false-color com-
posite is red.
Desert studies still are hampered in many
regions by lack of accurate climate data. Most
desert weather stations are in oases surrounded
by trees and buildings and have been subjected
to many location and elevation changes through-
out the life of the station. Data from oases do
not reflect conditions from the surrounding
desert. A wide variety of instruments has been
used to record measurements over varying
lengths of time and in different formats, making
data difficult to interpret and compare.

45
To overcome some of these problems in
deserts of the American Southwest, the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) established its Desert
Winds Project to measure in a standard format
several key meteorologic characteristics of arid
lands. Project scientists have successfully
established instrument stations to measure wind-
speed, including peak gusts, which alter the
landforms the most. A station recorded a wind-
storm near Vicksburg, Arizona, for example, with
peak gusts of almost 150 kilometers per hour.
Using low-maintenance, automatic, solar-powered
sensors, the stations also measure wind direc-
tion, precipitation, humidity, soil and air tempera-
tures, and barometric pressure at specific
heights above the surface. Data are sampled at
6-minute intervals and transmitted every 30
minutes to a Geostationary Operational Environ-
mental Satellite (GOES). From GOES, the data
are transmitted to the USGS laboratory in
Flagstaff, Arizona.
The Desert Winds Project's investigators com-
bine analyses of data with detailed geologic field
studies and repetitive remote-sensing coverage in
order to investigate and understand the long-term
changes produced by wind in deserts of differing
geologic and climatic types.

46
WIND DIRECTION
^___l WINDSPEED sensors
i_, ^ "- (6m elevation)

V ANTENNA
to GOES-4

Sensors for
PRECIPITATION
HUMIDITY
and
AIR TEMP.

This geometeorologic station of the Desert Winds Project measures wind speed and
direction, soil and air temperature, and precipitation and humidity in the Great Basin
Desert (photograph by Carol Breed).

47
Nitrate workings in a broad valley in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, where saline-
cemented surficial deposits formed near a playa lake (photograph by George Ericksen).

48
Mineral Resources
in Deserts

S ome mineral deposits are formed, improved,

or preserved by geologic processes that
occur in arid lands as a consequence of
climate. Ground water leaches ore minerals and
redeposits them in zones near the water table.
This leaching process concentrates these min-
erals as ore that can be mined. Of the 15 major
types of mineral deposits in the Western Hemi-
sphere formed by action of ground water, 13 oc-
cur in deserts.
Evaporation in arid lands enriches mineral ac-
cumulation in their lakes. Playas may be sources
of mineral deposits formed by evaporation. Water
evaporating in closed basins precipitates miner-
als such as gypsum, salts (including sodium ni-
trate and sodium chloride), and borates. The
minerals formed in these evaporite deposits de-
pend on the composition and temperature of the
saline waters at the time of deposition.
Significant evaporite resources occur in the
Great Basin Desert of the United States, mineral
deposits made forever famous by the "20-mule
teams" that once hauled borax-laden wagons
from Death Valley to the railroad. Boron, from
borax and borate evaporites, is an essential in-
gredient in the manufacture of glass, ceramics,
enamel, agricultural chemicals, water softeners,
and pharmaceuticals. Borates are mined from
evaporite deposits at Searles Lake, California,
and other desert locations. The total value of
chemicals that have been produced from Searles
Lake substantially exceeds $1 billion.
The Atacama Desert of South America is
unique among the deserts of the world in its
great abundance of saline minerals. Sodium ni-
trate has been mined for explosives and fertilizer
in the Atacama since the middle of the 19th cen-
tury. Nearly 3 million metric tons were mined
during World War I.
Valuable minerals located in arid lands include
copper in the United States, Chile, Peru, and
Iran; iron and lead-zinc ore in Australia; chromite
in Turkey; and gold, silver, and uranium deposits

49
in Australia and the United States. Nonmetallic
mineral resources and rocks such as beryllium,
mica, lithium, clays, pumice, and scoria also oc-
cur in arid regions. Sodium carbonate, sulfate,
borate, nitrate, lithium, bromine, iodine, calcium,
and strontium compounds come from sediments
and nearsurface brines formed by evaporation of
inland bodies of water, often during geologically
recent times.
The Green River Formation of Colorado, Wyo-
ming, and Utah contains alluvial fan deposits and
playa evaporites created in a huge lake whose

This open-pit mine in the Sonoran Desert near Ajo, Arizona, has exposed an elliptical copper
deposit about 1,000 meters long and 750 meters wide. The copper ore mined here is in a
bed that averages 150 meters in thickness (photograph by Peter Kresan).

50
Trona mine at Searles Lake, California (photograph by John Keith).

level fluctuated for millions of years. Economical-

ly significant deposits of trona, a major source of
sodium compounds, and thick layers of oil shale
were created in the arid environment.
Some of the more productive petroleum areas
on Earth are found in arid and semiarid regions
of Africa and the Mideast, although the oil reser-
voirs were originally formed in shallow marine
environments. Recent climate change has placed
these reservoirs in an arid environment.
Other oil reserviors, however, are presumed to
be eolian in origin and are presently found in
humid environments. The Rotliegendes, a hydro-
carbon reservoir in the North Sea, is associated
with extensive evaporite deposits. Many of the
major U.S. hydrocarbon resources may come
from eolian sands. Ancient alluvial fan se-
quences may also be hydrocarbon reservoirs.

51
The Sahelian drought that began in 1968 was responsible for the deaths of between 100,000
and 250,000 people, the disruption of millions of lives, and the collapse of the agricultural
bases of five countries (photograph by Daniel Stiles, UNEP).

52
Desertification

T
he world's great deserts were formed by
natural processes interacting over long
intervals of time. During most of these
times, deserts have grown and shrunk indepen-
dent of human activities. Paleodeserts, large
sand seas now inactive because they are stabi-
lized by vegetation, extend well beyond the pres-
ent margins of core deserts, such as the Sahara.
In some regions, deserts are separated sharply
from surrounding, less arid areas by mountains
and other contrasting landforms that reflect basic
structural differences in the regional geology. In
other areas, desert fringes form a gradual transi-
tion from a dry to a more humid environment,
making it more difficult to define the desert border.

Overgrazing has made the Rio Puerco Basin of central New Mexico one of the most eroded
river basins of the American West and has increased the high sediment content of the river
(photograph by Terrence Moore).

53
1

Linear dunes of the Sahara These transition zones have very fragile, deli-
Desert encroach on Nouak-
chott, the capital of Mauri-
cately balanced ecosystems. Desert fringes often
tania. Thedunes border a are a mosaic of microclimates. Small hollows
mosque at left (photograph support vegetation that picks up heat from the
by Georg Gerster).
hot winds and protects the land from the prevail-
ing winds. After rainfall the vegetated areas are
distinctly cooler than the surroundings. In these
marginal areas, human activity may stress the
ecosystem beyond its tolerance limit, resulting in
degradation of the land. By pounding the soil
with their hooves, livestock compact the substrate,
increase the proportion of fine material, and re-
duce the percolation rate of the soil, thus en-
couraging erosion by wind and water. Grazing
and the collection of firewood reduces or elim-
inates plants that help to bind the soil.
This degradation of formerly productive land
desertification is a complex process. It involves
multiple causes, and it proceeds at varying rates
in different climates. Desertification may intensify
a general climatic trend toward greater aridity, or
it may initiate a change in local climate.
54
Desertification does not occur in linear, easily
mappable patterns. Deserts advance erratically,
forming patches on their borders. Areas far from
natural deserts can degrade quickly to barren
soil, rock, or sand through poor land manage-
ment. The presence of a nearby desert has no
direct relationship to desertification. Unfortunate-
ly, an area undergoing desertification is brought
to public attention only after the process is well
underway. Often little or no data are available to
indicate the previous state of the ecosystem or
the rate of degradation. Scientists still question
whether desertification, as a process of global
change, is permanent or how and when it can be
halted or reversed.

Camels and other animals trample the soil in the semiarid Sahel of Africa as they move to
water holes such as this one in Chad (photograph courtesy of the U.S. Agency for Interna-
tional Development).

55
Problem
Desertification became well known in the
1930's, when parts of the Great Plains in the
United States turned into the "Dust Bowl" as a
result of drought and poor practices in farming,
although the term itself was not used until al-
most 1950. During the dust bowl period, millions
of people were forced to abandon their farms
and livelihoods. Greatly improved methods of
agriculture and land and water management in
the Great Plains have prevented that disaster
from recurring, but desertification presently af-
fects millions of people in almost every continent.
Increased population and livestock pressure on
marginal lands has accelerated desertification. In
some areas, nomads moving to less arid areas
disrupt the local ecosystem and increase the rate
of erosion of the land. Nomads are trying to es-
cape the desert, but because of their land-use
practices, they are bringing the desert with them.
It is a misconception that droughts cause
desertification. Droughts are common in arid and
semiarid lands. Well-managed lands can recover
from drought when the rains return. Continued
land abuse during droughts, however, increases
land degradation. By 1973, the drought that be-
gan in 1968 in the Sahel of West Africa and the
land-use practices there had caused the deaths
of more than 100,000 people and 12 million cat-
tle, as well as the disruption of social organiza-
tions from villages to the national level.
While desertification has received tremendous
publicity by the political and news media, there
are still many things that we don't know about
the degradation of productive lands and the ex-
pansion of deserts. In 1988 Ridley Nelson
pointed out in an important scientific paper that

Off-road vehicles significantly increase soil loss in the del-

icate desert environment of the western United States. In a
few seconds, soils that took hundreds of years to develop
can be destroyed (photograph by Terrence Moore).
the desertification problem and processes are
not clearly defined. There is no consensus
among researchers as to the specific causes, ex-
tent, or degree of desertification. Contrary to
many popular reports, desertification is actually a
subtle and complex process of deterioration that
may often be reversible.

Global monitoring
In the last 25 years, satellites have begun to
provide the global monitoring necessary for im-
proving our understanding of desertification.
Landsat images of the same area, taken several
years apart but during the same point in the
growing season, may indicate changes in the
susceptibility of land to desertification. Studies
using Landsat data help demonstrate the impact
of people and animals on the Earth. However,
other types of remote-sensing systems, land-
monitoring networks, and global data bases of
field observations are needed before the process
and problems of desertification will be completely
understood.

Local remedies
At the local level, individuals and governments
can help to reclaim and protect their lands. In
areas of sand dunes, covering the dunes with
large boulders or petroleum will interrupt the
wind regime near the face of the dunes and pre-
vent the sand from moving. Sand fences are
used throughout the Middle East and the United
States, in the same way snow fences are used in
the north. Placement of straw grids, each up to a
square meter in area, will also decrease the sur-
face wind velocity. Shrubs and trees planted
within the grids are protected by the straw until

Goat seeks food in the sparsely vegetated Sahel of Africa

(photograph courtesy of the U.S. Agency for International
Development).
they take root. In areas where some water is
available for irrigation, shrubs planted on the
lower one-third of a dune's windward side will
stabilize the dune. This vegetation decreases the
SSftp
' ,.,""-V, ft- - '. ' *tr-f*~.'-~- - ~-- T. -TC'Y- (', wind velocity near the base of the dune and
^v^r^rV '.-^::^?^"^^-;>5^A^i
ys«^^^-2^^>f^^"4;r^^i^- "^ ^^ -i-^.±"^^; ; prevents much of the sand from moving. Higher
velocity winds at the top of the dune level it off
and trees can be planted atop these flattened
surfaces.
Oases and farmlands in windy regions can be
protected by planting tree fences or grass belts.
Sand that manages to pass through the grass
belts can be caught in strips of trees planted as
wind breaks 50 to 100 meters apart adjacent to
the belts. Small plots of trees may also be scat-
tered inside oases to stabilize the area. On a
Straw grids (one of which is much larger scale, a "Green Wall," which will
shown above) and vegetation
irrigated by water from the eventually stretch more than 5,700 kilometers in
Yellow River stabilize dunes length, much longer than the famous Great Wall,
in this part of China's Teng- is being planted in northeastern China to protect
ger Desert (shown below)
and protect a nearby railroad "sandy lands" deserts believed to have been
from windblown sand. created by human activity.

58
More efficient use of existing water resources
and control of salinization are other effective
tools for improving arid lands. New ways are be-
ing sought to use surface-water resources such
as rain water harvesting or irrigating with sea-
sonal runoff from adjacent highlands. New ways
are also being sought to find and tap ground-
water resources and to develop more effective
ways of irrigating arid and semiarid lands. Re-
search on the reclamation of deserts also is
focusing on discovering proper crop rotation to
protect the fragile soil, on understanding how
sand-fixing plants can be adapted to local en-
vironments, and on how grazing lands and water
resources can be developed effectively without
being overused.
If we are to stop and reverse the degradation
of arid and semiarid lands, we must understand From wasteland to vineyard.
how and why the rates of climate change, popu- Ground water and under-
ground channels help this
lation growth, and food production adversely af-
vineyard flourish on land
fect these environments. The most effective in- reclaimed from desert pave-
tervention can come only from the wise use of ment in China's Turpan
the best earth-science information available. Depression.

59
Selected Readings
Bagnold, R. A., 1941, The physics of blown sand and desert dunes: Methuen, London, 265 p.
(A classic treatise concerning the origin and evolution of dunes.)
Breed, C. S., and others, 1979, Regional studies of sand seas, using Landsat (ERTS) im-
agery: in McKee, E. D., ed., A study of global sand seas: U.S. Geological Survey Profes-
sional Paper 1052, p. 305-397. (A study of selected sand seas based on analysis of
remote sensing images, surface wind summaries, and available literature.)
Cook, R. U., and Warren, Andrew, 1973, Geomorphology in deserts: University of California
Press, Berkeley, California, 374 p. (Examines the nature of landforms, soils, and geomor-
phological processes in the world's deserts.)
Eigeland, Tor, and others, 1982, The desert realm: National Geographic Society, Washington,
304 p. (A well illustrated discussion of deserts of America, Africa, Asia, and Australia.)
Ericksen, G. E., 1983, The Chilean nitrate deposits: American Scientist, v. 71, p. 366-374. (A
discussion of the origin of the Chilean nitrate deposits which has puzzled scientists for
more than 100 years.)
Gerster, Georg, 1960, Sahara-desert of destiny: Coward-McCann, New York, 302 p. (How
plants, animals, and people survive in the Sahara.)
Greeley, Ronald, and Iversen, J. D., 1985, Wind as a geological process on Earth, Mars,
Venus and Titan: Cambridge University Press, New York, 333 p. (Expands the classic
work of Bagnold to discuss eolian processes in a planetary context. Describes the pro-
cesses on all moons and terrestrial planets with atmospheres.)
Hare, F. K., 1983, Climate on the desert fringe: in Gardner, Ritz, and Scoging, Helen, eds.,
Mega-geomorphology: Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 134-151. (The margins of many deserts
are affected by tension between society and environment. This paper summarizes the
climatology of arid zones.)
MacMahon, James A., 1985, Deserts: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, New York, 640 p. (An Audubon
Society Nature Guide to the deserts of the United States, and their inhabitants.)
McCauley, J. F., and others, 1984, Remote monitoring of processes that shape desert
surfaces: The Desert Winds Project: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1634, 19 p.
(Describes a new study on collecting weather data from solar-powered data-collection plat-
forms in deserts. The data are relayed by a GOES satellite to the USGS in Flagstaff,
Arizona, and converted to graphic form.)
Meigs, Peveril, 1953, World distribution of arid and semi-arid homoclimates: in Reviews of
research on arid zone hydrology: Paris, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization, Arid Zone Programme-1, p. 203-209. (Classifies arid lands accor-
ding to precipitation.)
Nelson, R., 1988, Dryland management: the desertification problem: Environmental Depart-
ment Working Paper No. 8, Washington: World Bank, 42 p. (An excellent review of the
present state of knowledge concerning desertification.)
Tolba, M. K., 1984, Desertification is stoppable: Arid Lands Newsletter No. 21, p. 2-9. (A
discussion of the problems involved in preventing desertification and reclaiming arid
lands.)
Walker, A.S., 1986, Eolian geomorphology: in Short, N.M., and Blair, R.W., eds., Geomor-
phology from space: a global overview of regional landforms: NASA SP-486, p. 447-520 (a
brief review of desert processes).
Warren, A. and Agnew, C., 1988, An assessment of desertification and land degradation in
arid and semi-arid areas: International Institute for Environment and Development,
Drylands Programme, Paper 2, London: NED, 103 p. (An evaluation of land degradation
problems.)

The metric units used in this publication can be converted to English units by using the
approximate conversions given below:
Length Area Temperature
1 kilometer 0.6 of a mile 1 sq. kilometer 0.04 sq. mile To convert °Celsius to "Fahrenheit,
1 meter 39.37 inches 1 sq. meter 1.2 sq. yards multiply °C by 1.8 and add 32.
1 centimeter 0.4 inch 1 sq. centimeter 0.155 sq. inch To convert °Fahrenheit to °Celsius,
1 millimeter 0.04 inch subtract 32 from °F and divide the
result by 1.8.

60
his desert there are a great many evil
pyV/ts and also hot\winds; those who
Encounter them perish to a man. There
'neitfier birds above nor beasts below. Gaz-
on all, s/des as far as the 'eye can reach in
order to mark the track, no guidance is to be
qbtained save from the rgtting bones of dead
men, which point the way.

txplorer Fa Xian describing the, Taklimakan

Desert of China about 400 A.D.

This publication is one of a series of general interest publications Landsat image shows com-
prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey to provide information about plex linear and crescentic
the earth sciences, natural resources, and the environment. To obtain dunes in northeast
a catalog of additional titles in the series "General Interest Publications Taklimakan Desert of China.
of the U.S. Geological Survey," write:
Books and Open-File Reports Section
U.S. Geological Survey
Federal Center, Box 25425
Denver, CO 80225

t U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1992 0-305-515

^ As the Nation's principal conservation agency, the Department of the
&\ Interior has responsibility for most of our nationally-owned public lands and
*« natural and cultural resources. This includes fostering wise use of our land
) l|l and water resources, protecting our fish and wildlife, preserving the environ-
1/7 mental and cultural values of our national parks and historical places, and
$iy providing for the enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation The Depart-
ment assesses our energy and mineral resources a'nd works to assure that
their development is in the best interests of all our people. The Department also promotes
the goals of the Take Pride in America campaign by encouraging stewardship and citizen
responsibility for the public lands and promoting citizen participation in their care. The
Department also has a major responsibility for American Indian reservation communities and
for people who live in Island Territories under U.S. Administration

Cover Photographs:
Top left: Granite Mountain in the Great Basin Desert (photograph by
Terrence Moore).
Center: Sonoran Desert (photograph by Pefer Kresan).
Right: Zabriskie Point in Death Valley. California (photograph by
Peter Kresan).
Bottom left: Artists Point in Monument Valley (photograph by Peter
Kresan).
Center: Death Valley, California (photograph by Cecil Stoughton).
Right: Cacti in the Sonoran Desert (photograph by John Olsen).
Unless otherwise credited all photographs are by the author.