File:Richat Structure in Mauritania (MODIS).jpg

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Captions

Captions

On October 7, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of “The Eye of the Sahara”.

Summary

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Description
English: On October 7, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of “The Eye of the Sahara”.

While that nickname is completely appropriate, given the appearance when viewed from space, the proper name for this unique formation is the “Richat Structure”. Sitting in an extremely arid desert region of Mauritania’s Adrar Plateau, the ringed structure measures 28 miles (45 km) across and is made up of both igneous and sedimentary rock.

Although it looks like it could be an impact crater, it actually formed when a volcanic dome hardened and then gradually eroded, slowly exposing the ringed rock layers. The result is an onion-like formation, with ridges formed of weather-resistant rocks while less-resistant rock forms valleys between the ridges. Some of the igneous rocks found within the structure have been dated as having cooled between 94 and 104 million years ago.
Date Taken on 7 October 2023
Source

Richat Structure in Mauritania (direct link)

This image or video was catalogued by Goddard Space Flight Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: 2023-10-13.

This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing.
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Author MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
This media is a product of the
Terra mission
Credit and attribution belongs to the mission team, if not already specified in the "author" row

Licensing

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Public domain This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
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current05:05, 13 October 2023Thumbnail for version as of 05:05, 13 October 20231,263 × 958 (343 KB)OptimusPrimeBot (talk | contribs)#Spacemedia - Upload of http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/images/image10132023_250m.jpg via Commons:Spacemedia

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