Unusual, isolated lake in the dunes of Saudi's Empty Quarter

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Seems like a lake in the Rub Al Khali dunes. Unusual in that it's quite large and there are no similar features nearby. Wondering if it's permanent or has a name or any pictures exist from visits.

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Aug 27, 2018 10:37:08 GMT dubaitim said:

... or has a name ...

Is anyone able to speak that language?

GM

Aug 27, 2018 11:17:00 GMT willi1 said:

Aug 27, 2018 10:37:08 GMT dubaitim said:

... or has a name ...

Is anyone able to speak that language?

GM

It's Arabic but my translator wouldn't solve it

it is 'The tip of the tarmac' Gtranslated to english, but if try to GTranslate to hungarian some 'tip of the estuary' comes out.

note: using GE layers, all the 'pools' of the whole dune desert are signed as water-bodies, also similar feature at >>20.898261°, 54.007960°<< with related GMapsPhoto:


Google translation of the photo title from arabic to english: "The stigma of the weak" (?) (قلمة الضعيف) / photo by: Mubarak Al Jumaili Al Otaibi (مبارك الجميلي العتيبي)

I have checked all GE layers, but no further clues I could dig up so far.

interesting spotting!

welcome around dubaitim!

Excellent, thanks!

That was a fantastic find, dubaitim.   I used to look at the Empty Quarter a lot, finding mostly landing strips and other oil-related things. This new imagery is even more beautiful than before. Time for more EQ touring!

Aug 28, 2018 5:56:42 GMT syzygy said:

it is 'The tip of the tarmac' Gtranslated to english, but if try to GTranslate to hungarian some 'tip of the estuary' comes out.

note: using GE layers, all the 'pools' of the whole dune desert are signed as water-bodies, also similar feature at >>20.898261°, 54.007960°<< with related GMapsPhoto:

The photo is  watermarked by MobarkMMG, MobarkMMG  posts the brown dying tree, and then posts it with its "if the wells werent dry and the ponds weren't salty" green photo ..
I think MobarkMMG is a faker. It looks rather fake. the aerial photography suggests its rather salty  or sandy across the dry lake bed, with a strip of flat sand between sand dune and water even at the end its close,
but MobarkMMG's work shows the water  right up to  steep sloped sand dunes. 


These oasis are where the surface level is down at around 70 metres above sea level - is it  just a fluke of nature that the area is not covered more deeply with sand ? There is some process that  ensures the sand does not  fill up every gap between the dunes so that the water table is below the sand ?  

Here's my idea for  this  process   The winds blow the sand away from the dry lake beds, to sit on the side of the nearby sand dune. The sand dunes grow to a maximal height, and then they reduce the wind strength, so that the wind is not able to blow the sand over that sand dune.  With all the dunes in the area at this maximal height, the height at which sand does not reach the top fast enough to grow it, the     lake bed is eroding faster than it receives erosion from upwind... so it only descends.. it drops to the water table level ? so an existing mud plain can be expected to keep dropping down to the water table level ? 


Or else, the oasis is purely fluke of the winds not yet filling it with sand ? 

hi leong !

better resolution imagery on ZE makes clear, that there are water outfolws and (periodic(?)) vegetation cover around such places.

please check this artificial (?) outflow at the originally posted site also the one at (NEW!) GE photo, with much more green cover. (also you can see the shrubs at the feet of the dune, which also can be seen on previously posted photo by mobarkmmg)



photo is do not have to be a fake I think - some haplophyl plants (such as reed species) can rub along even by very high salinity ...

***
Edit:
Article about ground water in the area (Rub al Khali)
english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2018/05/31/Secrets-buried-under-the-Sahara-sands-of-the-Rub-al-Khali.html

BTW, what the rectangular hell is goin on in this "lakebed"? 

The rectangles have to do with trying to find oil by use of "seismology, creating shock waves that pass through hidden rock layers and interpreting the waves that are reflected back to the surface. ...   thumper truck slams heavy plates into the ground (for exploration over land)." I see evidence of oil exploration spread around the area. This one looks like a processing plant.

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