Hamada
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A hamada (Template:Langx, Template:Transliteration) is a type of desert landscape consisting of high, largely barren, hard rocky (basalt) plateaus, where most of the sand has been removed by deflation.<ref name=Springer>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The majority of the Sahara is hamada.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Other examples are Negev desert in Israel and the Template:Ill in Algeria.<ref name=":0" />
FormationEdit
Hamadas are produced by the wind, which removes the fine products of weathering, an aeolian process known as deflation. The finer-grained products are taken away in suspension. At the same time, the sand is removed through saltation and surface creep, leaving behind a landscape of gravel, boulders and bare rock.<ref>B.W. Sparks. Geomorphology, 2nd ed., pp. 322-3. Longman Group Ltd. 1972. (Template:ISBN)</ref>
Related landformsEdit
Hamada is related to desert pavement (known variously as reg, serir, gibber, or saï), which occurs as stony plains or depressions covered with gravels or boulders rather than as highland plateaus.<ref name=Springer/>
Hamadas exist in contrast to ergs, which are large areas of shifting sand dunes.<ref>McKnight, Tom L. and Darrel Hess. Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation, 8th ed., pp. 495-6. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 2005. (Template:ISBN)</ref>
See alsoEdit
Hammada, a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Amaranthaceae.