Saudi Arabia Great DesertsSaudi Arabia Great DesertsThree great deserts isolate the great plateau area Najd of Saudi Arabia from the north, east, and south, as the Red Sea escarpment does from the west. In the north, the An Nafud—sometimes called the Great Nafud because An Nafud is the term for desert—covers about 55,000 square kilometers at an elevation of about 1,000 meters. Longitudinal dunes—scores of kilometers in length and as much as 90 meters high and separated by valleys as much as 16 kilometers wide—characterize the An Nafud. Iron oxide gives the sand a red tint, particularly when the sun is low. Within the area are several watering places, and winter rains bring up short-lived succulent grasses that permit nomadic herding during the winter and spring. Stretching more than 125 kilometers south from the An Nafud in a narrow arc is the Ad-Dahna Desert, a narrow band of sand mountains also called the river of sand. Like the An Nafud, its sand tends to be reddish, particularly in the north, where it shares with the An Nafud the longitudinal structure of sand dunes. The Ad Dahna furnishes the Bedouin with winter and spring pasture, although water is scarcer than in the An Nafud. The southern portion of the Ad Dahna curves westward following the arc of the Jabal Tuwayq. At its southern end, it merges with the Rub' al Khali, one of the truly forbidding sand deserts in the world and, until the 1950s, one of the least explored. The topography of this huge area, covering more than 550,000 square kilometers, is varied. In the west, the elevation is about 600 meters, and the sand is fine and soft, in the east, the elevation drops to about 180 meters, and much of the surface is covered by relatively stable sand sheets and salt flats. In places, particularly in the east, longitudinal sand dunes prevail, elsewhere sand mountains as much as 300 meters in height form complex patterns. Most of the area is totally waterless and uninhabited except for the few wandering Bedouin tribes. Saudi Arabia Caves Beneath the harsh deserts of Saudi Arabia lie dark chambers and complex mazes filled with crystalline structures, stalactites and stalagmites. The limestone floor of the Summan plateau, a karst area to the east of the Dahna sands, is riddled with such caves, known locally as dahls. Some have tiny entrances which open into caves, others lead into a maze of passages which can be several kilometers long. Local Bedouin have long known of these caves, and some were used as water supplies. They were first systematically studied in 1981, and later explored and reported by the Saudi Geological Survey. Saudi Arabia Environmental Concerns The Persian Gulf War of 1991 brought serious environmental damage to the region. The world's largest oil spill, estimated at as much as 8,000,000 barrels (1,300,000 m3), fouled gulf waters and the coastal areas of Kuwait, Iran, and much of Saudi Arabia's Persian Gulf shoreline. In some of the sections of the Saudi coast that sustained the worst damage, sediments were found to contain 7% oil. The shallow areas affected normally provide feeding grounds for birds, and feeding and nursery areas for fish and shrimp. Because the plants and animals of the sea floor are the basis of the food chain, damage to the shoreline has consequences for the whole shallow-water ecosystem, including the multimillion-dollar Saudi fisheries industry. The spill had a severe impact on the coastal area surrounding Madinat 'al-Jubayl as Sinaiyah, the major industrial and population center newly planned and built by the Saudi government. The spill threatened industrial facilities in 'Al Jubayl because of the seawater cooling system for primary industries and threatened the supply of potable water produced by seawater-fed desalination plants. The 'Al Jubayl community harbor and Abu Ali Island, which juts into the gulf immediately north of 'Al Jubayl, experienced the greatest pollution, with the main effect of the spill concentrated in mangrove areas and shrimp grounds. Large numbers of marine birds, such as cormorants, grebes, and auks, were killed when their plumage was coated with oil. In addition, beaches along the entire 'Al Jubayl coastline were covered with oil and tar balls. The exploding and burning of approximately 700 oil wells in Kuwait also created staggering levels of atmospheric pollution, spewed oily soot into the surrounding areas, and produced lakes of oil in the Kuwaiti desert equal in volume to 20 times the amount of oil that poured into the gulf, or about 150,000,000 barrels (24,000,000 m3). The soot from the Kuwaiti fires was found in the snows of the Himalayas and in rainfall over the southern members of the Community of Independent States, Iran, Oman, and Turkey. Residents of Riyadh reported that cars and outdoor furniture were covered daily with a coating of oily soot. Samples of soil and vegetation in Ras al Khafji in northern Saudi Arabia revealed high levels of particles of oily soot incorporated into the desert ecology. The United Nations Environment Programme warned that eating livestock that grazed within an area of 7,000 square kilometers of the fires, or 1,100 kilometers from the center of the fires, an area that included northern Saudi Arabia, posed a danger to human health. To these two major sources of environmental damage must be added large quantities of refuse, toxic materials, and between 173 million and 207 million liters of untreated sewage in sand pits left behind by coalition forces. Natural Hazards: Frequent Sand and Dust Storms
Arable land: 1.8% Permanent crops: 0% Permanent pastures: 56% Forests and Woodland: 0% Other: 42% Irrigated land: 4,350 km² Geography of Saudi Arabia Overview Saudi Arabia Continent: Asia Saudi Arabia Region: West Asia Saudi Arabia Coordinates: 25°00′N 45°00′E Saudi Arabia Area: Ranked 12th Saudi Arabia Total: 2,149,690 km2 (830,000 sq mi) Land 100% Water 0% Saudi Arabia Coastline: 2,640 km (1,640 mi) Saudi Arabia Borders: Total: 4,415 km (2,743 mi) Saudi Arabia Highest Point: Jabal Sawda, 3,015 m (9,892 ft) Saudi Arabia Lowest Point: Persian Gulf, Red Sea 0 m (0 ft) Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia Longest River: Wadi al-Rummah 600 km (373 mi) Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia Largest Lake: Al-Asfar Lake 20,000 ha (49,421 acres) Saudi Arabia Climate: Most of Saudi Arabia follows a desert climate, with exceptions Saudi Arabia Terrain: Mostly desert covered, some mountainous areas and plains Saudi Arabia Natural Resources: Petroleum, natural gas, fish, minerals, farming Saudi Arabia Natural Hazards: Haze, dust storms Saudi Arabia Environmental Issues: Desertification, depletion of ground water, lack of perennial rivers or permanent water bodies, coastal pollution from oil spills Saudi Arabia Exclusive Economic Zone: 228,633 km2 (88,276 sq mi) | |||||
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