Volcanoes in the Sahara!
A 350-mile-long basaltic
massif in Northern
Chad and (marginally)
Southern
Libya. The region is dominated by seven large
stratovolcanoes
(in order, from northwest to southeast):
-
Tousside 10,712 ft. (3,265 m)
-
Abeki 8,036 ft (2,450 m)
-
Tarso Voon 10,168 ft. (3,100 m)
-
Yega 8,200 ft. (2,500m)
-
Oyoye 7,314 ft. (2,230m)
-
Toon 8,528 ft (2,600 m)
-
Tieroko 9,545 ft. (2,910 m)
-
Emi Koussi 11,204 ft. (3,415 m)
The Tibesti appear(s) to be situated over a
hot spot in the Earth's crust
(although another theory attributes the region to the impact of a large
asteroid). So, if you have been asking yourself "What would
Hawaii
be like if it had formed in the middle of the Sahara?", here is your answer.
The volcanoes began to form in the
Miocene epoch but there was considerable
activity in the Pleistocene (when the Sahara was a mixture of temperate
forest and savanna). The volcanoes are considered "temporarily inactive".
As forbidding as a rugged mountain range in the middle of the world's
largest desert may seem, the region is inhabited by the
Tibu people,
nomadic herders.
The ruggedness of the terrain has meant that many of Chad's rebel movements,
the most recent being
MDJT, have based themselves in the Tibesti.
For some great images of the volcanoes, you can go to
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/img_Tibesti.html