Rub' al Khali

Coordinates: 20°N 50°E / 20°N 50°E / 20; 50

The Rub' al Khali (Arabic: الربع الخالي‎ ar-Rubʿ al-Ḫālī, "Empty Quarter") is the largest contiguous sand desert (erg) in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq mi) (the area between long. 44°30′−56°30′E, and lat. 16°30′−23°00′N) including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert.

Description

Terrain

The desert is 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long, and 500 kilometres (310 mi) wide. Its surface elevation varies from 800 metres (2,600 ft) in the southwest to around sea level in the northeast. The terrain is covered with sand dunes with heights up to 250 metres (820 ft), interspersed with gravel and gypsum plains. The sand is of a reddish-orange color due to the presence of feldspar.

There are also brackish salt flats in some areas, such as the Umm al Samim area on the desert's eastern edge.

The Nine Nations of North America

The Nine Nations of North America is a 1981 book by Joel Garreau. In it, Garreau suggests that North America can be divided into nine nations, which have distinctive economic and cultural features. He also argues that conventional national and state borders are largely artificial and irrelevant, and that his "nations" provide a more accurate way of understanding the true nature of North American society. Paul Meartz of Mayville State University called it "a classic text on the current regionalization of North America". The Nations reflected here are included in a Michael F. Flynn short fictional story, in which all the Nine Nations have gained independence.

The Nine Nations