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The Eye of the Sahara

8/21/2020

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IT LOOKS DIFFERENT FROM SPACE
Beginning in 1968, when Apollo 8 set out for the moon, the human vision of the earth changed and will never be the same again. Satellite photography has shared many new visions of our world with the general public.

Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders said it all. "We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth."
Image Credit: NASA - Photo Source: spacecoastdaily.com/apollo-8-pilot-bill-anders                     

​
Whether or not objects on earth are visible from space depends, of course, on the distance from the planet. At several hundred kilometers from earth, we have seen things about our planet not visible from the normal human perspective. The Eye of the Sahara is one of these features that remained hidden until the advent of space photography.

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​​THE EYE OF THE SAHARA
Officially named the Richat Structure, the Eye of the Sahara was first described in the 1930’s. The geologic structure is a prominent circular feature in the Sahara's Adrar Plateau in west-central Mauritania, in North West Africa.

Because the location is remote and inhospitable, no one had paid much attention to the geological find since the 1940s until it was photographed from space. These photos rekindled interest. At first geologists thought it was a crater, but the more recent and accepted theories suggest that it is, in fact, an eroded dome 25 miles in diameter, exposing sedimentary rock in layers which appear as concentric rings. A product of erosion that took place in geological time. Photos of the area may flutter the heart of a geologist, but they don’t impress the average person.     
▼Photo Source: excitementnnet.blogspot.com/eye                                                          Photo Source: en.wikipedia.org/Richat_Structure ▼

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​This is not supposed to be a geology lesson. It's enough to say the geology of the area is volcanic, and the cooling of the rocks dates back to between 94 and 104 million years ago. 
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ARE YOU IMPRESSED YET?
I didn’t think so.
Apparently, no one else was either – at least enough to do more research in such an inhospitable location.
Seen from space, however, the photographs look like this.

Image Credits: NASA                                                    
Image Credits: Sentinel 2B on 2017-07-26                               Image Credits: NASA    
PhotoSource: express.co.uk/Atlantis-found              Photo Source: earthstartsbeating.com/the-eye-of-sahara/         Photo Source: Wikipedia Commons 
 Image Credits: NASA                                        Image Credits: NASA                                         Image Credits: NASA      
Photo Source
: dreamstime.com/richat-structure
   
    Photo Source: youtube.com/watch?v=jfpeM0ehRf8      PhotoSource: earthstartsbeating.com/the-eye 
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WHAT WILL WE PHOTOGRAPH NEXT?
Now that there’s a realistic movement and investment to send tourists to space [not in my lifetime – Boo-hoo!], no doubt humans will discover many more mysterious and wonderful things about our planet. Unfortunately, The Eye of the Sahara will not be on anyone’s bucket list for a while – at least until there is tourist travel in space.
□

 Image Credits: NASA  - Photo Source: mysterioustrip.com/eye-sahara


Sources

http://excitementnnet.blogspot.com/2012/10/eye-of-sahara.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richat_Structure
https://www.thoughtco.com/eye-of-the-sahara-4164093
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-eye-of-the-sahara-is-still-a-mystery-2016-7
https://www.zmescience.com/science/geology/the-eye-of-the-sahara-05102010/
https://www.dw.com/en/our-beautiful-planet-the-eye-of-africa/a-41517470
https://www.earthstartsbeating.com/2017/08/04/the-eye-of-sahara/
https://www.science101.com/scientists-find-mystery-ominous-eye-of-africa/
https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/1042776/Atlantis-found-lost-city-Sahara-desert-atlantis-eye-of-sahara-location-conspiracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfpeM0ehRf8
https://gizmodo.com/the-eye-of-the-sahara-is-an-enigmatic-desert-landmark-1607604961
https://www.dreamstime.com/richat-structure-mauritania-circular-feature-under-clouds-collage-richat-structure-mauritania-circular-feature-under-image139318462
https://mysterioustrip.com/eye-sahara-richat-structure/
https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/en/earthview/2003/tp031015.html
​

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    Author R. Ann Siracusa

    Novelist, retired architect and urban planner, world traveler, quilter, owl collector, devoted wife-mother-grandmother, great-grandmother, and, according to some, wild-assed liberal.

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