Pathological Geomorphology

Hard to define, but we all know it when we see it.

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    Pathologically symmetrical annular drainage, Mauritania

    Well, back to the desert for me...Ouadane, Mauritania in this case. The Richat structure is a spectacular expression of an annular drainage pattern in the Sahara. I came across this while straying from a search in the fold complexes of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. I also found a nicely enhanced image of the structure posted on a Google Earth bulletin board. I agree that it appears to be a very well defined domal uplift of a sequence of sedimentary rocks, but I don't know details.

    Flash Earth Link
    http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=21.110995&lon=-11.357303&z=11.5&r=0&src=msl
    Link to Google Earth community discussion of feature:
    http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Number=11619

    Link to images of this feature found in Google Search:

    http://www.google.com/images?sa=3&q=richat+structure&btnG=Search+images

    More evidence of this feature as a geoblogger favorite:

    http://geology.rockbandit.net/2008/09/25/richat-structure-in-mauritania/

     

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    Pathologically_symmetrical_ann.zip (1.28 MB)

     

    Tags » annular desert drainage fluvial structure
    • 28 February 2010
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    about 2 years ago Lockwood DeWitt responded:
    Lockwood DeWitt
    That is awesome!
    about 2 years ago Callan Bentley responded:
    Callan Bentley
    There was some discussion of this thing a while ago on the geoblogosphere. Here's an entry on Geology News Blog about it.
    about 2 years ago Kyle House responded:
    Kyle House
    Yep...I put that link on the post...near the end.
    9 months ago Jake Hoff liked this post.
    9 months ago Howard Isaacs liked this post.

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