Where is libyan desert located

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Show results from All journals This journal. This results in the formation of a network of new, tiny interlocking grains. Libyan desert glass contains many zircon grains, all smaller than the width of a human hair.

But the thing is, reidite is no longer present. It only gets preserved if shocked rocks do not melt. So it takes a specialised technique called electron backscatter diffraction to nut out whether reidite once existed in shocked zircons that got hot. The key to finding evidence of former reidite lies in analysing the crystal orientations of the tiny interlocking grains in reverted zircon.

When reidite changes back to zircon, it leaves a fingerprint of its existence that can be detected through orientation analysis. And we found the reidite fingerprint in samples of the Libyan desert glass. We examined zircon grains from seven samples and the critical crystal orientation evidence of former reidite was present in each sample.

Reidite is rare and only reported from meteorite impact sites. It is found in material ejected from craters and in shocked rocks at craters. Prior studies have found evidence of former reidite within zircon from impact melt , similar to how it was identified in Libyan desert glass. A megaton airburst should occur every 10, years. If this size event is supposed to have caused Libyan desert glass to form, the geological record does not support the idea. The reidite fingerprint points to a meteor impact as the only option.

Outstanding mysteries about Libyan desert glass still remain, such as the location of the source crater, its size, and determining if it has eroded away.

By Aaron J. Cavosie , Senior research fellow, Curtin University. Hassanein adventures were published in in the National Geographic Magazine and a year later in his book 'The Lost Oasis'. For information, a video and background history about Maghreb where there is some volunteer work. Video and information. Details of current volunteer work opportunities in each of the countries of Africa.

Toggle navigation Libyan Desert. Make a real difference Marseilles cloth and Venetian paper went south, precious stones and ostrich plumes headed north — and news came in from everywhere. On my journey the scent of crushed lemon leaves filled the empty lanes, and rods of light fell through vertical skylights on to white mud-brick houses. The temperature outside reached 36C. The hotel on the outskirts of Ghadames new town was characteristic of tourism in the Libyan interior.

The Revolutionary government moved 6, residents from the medieval lanes in the early s, a gesture towards the fabled modernisation Gaddafi craved. Leaflets in the huge marble lobby advertised an impressive range of facilities. I made enquiries. The pool? Abbas had a government job in addition to being a guide, though he appeared rarely to attend. When I asked him, after a week on the road, how he managed so much time away from the office, he said he got his cousin to sign in for him.

South of Ghadames, we entered the wilderness of Hamada al-Hamra and passed three cars in km. This expanse of desert scrub has been keeping smugglers safe since the time Europeans were emerging from their caves. Traffic thickened only as we approached Sebha, where we stopped at a shop for dates, stored, as everywhere, in boxes in the deep freeze, and ate some cashews and Ecuadorean bananas. Sebha is a horrible modern hole. Today's traders deal in people, spiriting Africans up to the coast and across to Sicily.

At the Ubari petrol station, young men filled rows of jerrycans strapped to the roofs of their Toyota Land Cruisers, the whole forecourt a seething souk of Tuareg and Berber faces. Petrol is 10p a litre in Libya, and 10 times that in neighbouring Tunisia, and around Ghadames and Ubari people fill cans and custom-built litre tanks to siphon off in more lucrative markets.

I asked Abbas if fuel accounted for the majority of illegal trade, "No! I made a lot of money last year importing canned dog and cat food from Tunisia.