4
January 2018
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
Be a part of ASPRS Social Media:
In central Algeria, just north of the Tropic of Cancer and about 1200 kilometers (750
miles) south of the Algiers metropolis, lies a land as desolate as it is beautiful.
In this part of the Sahara, known as the Tanezrouft Basin, the land is especially
parched, with annual rainfall measured in millimeters (less than 5 millimeters or
0.2 inches). This is a hyperarid place of soaring temperatures and scarce access to
water or vegetation. There are no permanent residents here, only occasional Tuareg
nomads. The basin’s colloquial name is the “Land of Terror” because, for many, to
traverse this land is to stare death in the face.
The severe conditions that make this basin a barren expanse for life also lay bare its
exquisite geology. Wind erosion—caused by constant sandblasting through millen-
nia of frequent sandstorms—has exposed ancient folds in the Paleozoic rocks. This
natural-color image, acquired on October 22, 2017, by the Operational Land Imager
(OLI) on Landsat 8, shows concentric rings of exposed sandstone strata that create
stunning patterns across the Tanezrouft Basin. When viewed from 705 kilometers
(438 miles) above Earth, the exposed geologic features create an arresting work of
abstract art.
The sandstone canyons in this region have walls that rise as high as 500 meters
(1,600 feet), and salt flats can be found in their lower reaches. The flats indicate that
water played a role in sculpting this landscape. “Intermittent flooding has occurred
often enough to mold the landscape pretty thoroughly over millions of years,” ex-
plained P. Kyle House, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
“There are numerous canyons in this region that both follow and abruptly cut direct-
ly across the grain of the tilted and folded strata,” he added. “These patterns are
striking and reminiscent of landscapes formed on folded strata in, for example, the
Red Desert of southern Wyoming and even parts of the heavily forested Appalachian
Mountains of the Eastern United States.”
On the ground, life is a rarity. Fifty miles east of this area, the trans-Saharan high-
way—known as one of the world’s most brutal roads—makes its way through the
desert.
Formore information, visit
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING
& REMOTE SENSING
J
ournal
S
taff
Publisher ASPRS
Editor-In-Chief Alper Yilmaz
Technical Editor Michael S. Renslow
Assistant Editor Jie Shan
Assistant Director — Publications Rae Kelley
Electronic Publications Manager/Graphic Artist Matthew Austin
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing
is the official journal of the
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exchange of ideas and information about the applications of photogrammetry,
remote sensing, and geographic information systems. The technical activities of
the Society are conducted through the following Technical Divisions: Geographic
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