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Where is it?Haruj volcanic field , Libya [ 27.30184638 , 17.50182896 ]
What ’s in the photo?An ancient lava flowing in the middle of the Sahara desert
The Haruj volcanic field covers around 17,000 square miles of the Sahara desert and contains dried lava that is up to 6 million years old in places.
Which orbiter take the photo?Landsat 8
When was it taken?Between July 24 , 2013 , and April 13 , 2016
A giant eyepatch of fateful , fossilized lava that was spewed across theSahara desertover millions of years appear like an eery , amber - speckled shadow in this stunning complex of three eld ' worth of satellite photos .
Lava fields like Haruj are covered with cones, vents and uneven layers of volcanic rock. This photo was taken at the Tibesti volcanic field, also in Libya.
The shadowy mass , known as the Haruj volcanic discipline , covers around 17,000 straight miles ( 44,000 square kilometers ) in central Libya and contains roughly 150 out volcanoes , wander from small release and chimneys to larger buckler volcanoes , according to theU.S. Geological Survey .
Some of the volcanic rocks are up to 6 million old age old , while others were bequeath by eruptions that happen as recently as a few thousand years ago , accord to theGlobal Volcanism Programat the Smithsonian ’s National Museum of Natural History .
While the saturnine colour of the petrified lava make the subject area look placid and flat from above , the playing area is extremely uneven , with areas where multiple eruptions have caused layer of rock’n’roll to pile up above their environment . The site is also littered with raised venthole and at least 30 cone that support more than 330 feet ( 100 meters ) improbable , according to the Global Volcanism Program .
The magniloquent peak in the field endure roughly 3,900 feet ( 1,200 molar concentration ) above sea level .
connect : See all the dear paradigm of Earth from distance
The satellite image above is what is known as a " best pixel mosaic " and was made using a computing machine program that sorts through multiple image of the same dapple pixel by pixel to make a final image that is destitute from obscuring element , such as clouds or dust storms , fit in toNASA ’s Earth Observatory .
This model also pick out pixels where patches of Baroness Dudevant that have go down in between gaps in the lava catch the sunlight , which has make the golden speckles littered across the field . These sandy spots are much less obvious in other planet images of the area .
Volcanic history
Most volcanoes are turn out along fault lines that intersect Earth’stectonic plate , because this is where the satellite ’s gall is weakest and magma from the mantelpiece can easily rise to the open .
However , the Haruj volcanic domain is not located near any live fault lines . rather , the lava there was likely dragged up forthwith from the mantle by a rush of hot , rocky textile — known as a mantle plume — which create a reservoir of magma below the field .
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As a result , lava from the Haruj vent would have easy bubble up and exudate out from the landing field ’s multiple vents , interchangeable to moderneruptions that occur at Hawaii ’s Kilauea vent , rather than being ejected in explosive eruptions , according to the Earth Observatory .
Some investigator conceive Haruj is made up of two separate volcanic fields : Al Haruj al Aswad , which is located in the north and contains much older lava ; and Al Haruj al Abyad , which is settle in the south and was created more recently . However , it is knockout to tell where one of these theater of operations ends and the other begins , so it is more unremarkably suppose of as a unmarried entity .
