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The Richat Structure is a deeply eroded, slightly elliptical dome with a diameter of 40 kilometres (25 mi). The sedimentary rock exposed in this dome ranges in age from Late Proterozoic within the center of the dome to Ordovician sandstone around its edges.
The old town, a World Heritage Site, though in ruins, is still substantially intact, while a small modern settlement lies outside its gate. Ouadane is the closest town to the Richat Structure, a massive circular landmark visible from space. The whole Ouadane commune has a total size of 118,210 km², mostly consisting of desert.
Of major archaeological interest is the fact that in the northwest of the Souss-Massa plain a large annular caldera-like geomorphologic structure was discovered. This structure has almost the dimensions of Plato's capital of Atlantis and is covered with hundreds of large and small prehistoric ruins of different types. [53]
The Richat Structure in the Sahara Desert of Mauritania. Once considered to be an impact structure, it is now classified as a geologic dome uplifted by an underlying igneous intrusion. Structural dome on Baffin Island, seen in a planation surface. Oblique aerial photo of Upheaval Dome, Utah.
Along with some on the ancient settlements listed below, other tourist highlights in the Mauritanian Sahara include the Richat Structure just beyond Ouadane, Fort Saganne, the nearby Amojjar Pass and the sandy Tifoujar Pass; Terjit oasis and the medieval ruins of Ksar el Barka. In 2010's, Mauritania visited by 1,500 tourists each year.
The Richat Structure in Mauritania is not an impact crater, but rather a eroded anticline. It is 50km across, and shown in here in a topographic reconstruction (scaled 6:1 on the vertical axis) from sattelite photos. False coloring as follows: bedrock=brown, sand=yellow/white, vegetation=green, salty sediments=blue
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Richat Structure by Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Instead of being a meteorite impact, the landform is more likely to be a collapsed dome fold structure.. Remote sensing is used in the geological sciences as a data acquisition method complementary to field observation, because it allows mapping of geological characteristics of regions without physical contact with the areas being ...