An erg (also sand sea or dune sea) is a large, relatively flat area of
desert covered with
wind-swept
sand with little to no vegetation cover. The term takes its name from the
Arabic word erg , meaning "dune field". Strictly speaking, an erg is defined to be a desert area that contains more than 125
square kilometers of
eolian or wind-blown sand and where sand covers more than 20% of the surface. Smaller areas are known as
dune fields. The largest hot desert in the world, the
Sahara, is 9,000,000 km² and contains several ergs, such as Erg Chech in
Algeria. Approximately 85% of all the Earth's mobile sand is found in ergs that are larger than 32,000 km². Ergs are also found on other
celestial bodies, such as Venus and
Saturn's moon Titan.
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