Mystery of enormous Saharan 'star dune' finally solved — and it wasn't what scientists were expecting
A towering, star-shaped dune in the Sahara desert formed in less than a thousand years, new research finds. The study, published March 4 in the journal Scientific Reports , is one of relatively few to look at these so-called star dunes, which are the tallest dunes on Earth. Named for their multiple-armed shapes, star dunes form in places where the winds change direction throughout the year, according to the National Park Service . Although star dunes are found all over the world, there is only one confirmed star dune in the rock record, from about 250 million years ago in Scotland, Charles Bristow , a professor emeritus of sedimentology at University College London, told Live Science . That may be because researchers don't know what to look for to identify an ancient star dune, he said. These dunes are difficult to study because they're usually in remote locations, and slogging up a few hundred feet of shifting sand is not easy. The dune is in Morocco in a dune field cal...