High Dunes in the Namib Desert

Namib-Naukluft National Park is an ecological preserve in the Namib Desert in
southwest Africa, thought to be Earth's oldest desert. The park is the largest
game park in Africa, and a surprising collection of creatures manages to survive
in the hyper-arid region, including snakes, geckos, unusual insects, hyenas, and jackals.
More moisture comes in as a fog off the Atlantic Ocean than falls as rain, with the
average 63 millimeters of rainfall per year concentrated in the months of February and April.

The winds that bring in the fog are also responsible for creating the park's towering
sand dunes, whose burnt orange color is a sign of their age. The orange color develops over
time as iron in the sand is oxidized (like rusty metal); the older the dune, the brighter
the color. These dunes are the tallest in the world, in places rising above the desert floor
more than 300 meters (almost 1000 feet). The dunes taper off near the coast, and lagoons,
wetlands, and mudflats located along the shore attract hundreds of thousands of birds.

This perspective view was created by draping an ASTER color image over an ASTER derived
Digital Elevation Model of the topography. The image was acquired October 14, 2002.