While the Arabian Peninsula is known for its vast deserts of sand, the area also contains extensive fields of lava.
While the Arabian Peninsula is known for its vast deserts of sand, the area also contains extensive fields of lava. The western half of the peninsula contains at least 12 volcanic fields known as harrats. One such field is the 14,000-square-kilometer (5,400-square-mile) Harrat Khaybar, one of the largest in Saudi Arabia.
Harrat Khaybar was formed by eruptions over the past 5 million years along a 100-kilometer vent system that runs north-south. According to the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program, the volcanic field is still active, and eight lava flows are less than 1,500 years old. The last known eruption was reported in Harrat Khaybar in the 7th century.
Three of the youngest volcanic vents in Harrat Khaybar can be seen in this image, acquired by the OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9. These volcanoes resulted from different eruptive styles: Jabal Qidr is a stratovolcano (or composite cone); Jabal Abyad is a felsic dome; and Jabal Bayda is a tuff cone.
Read more at NASA Earth Observatory
Image: NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey
