Qualla: Geography of Mauritania

Geography of Mauritania: Introduction

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. From orbit, one feature stops the eye: a bullseye nearly fifty kilometers across, etched into the desert as if by a compass the size of a country. Space Shuttle crews used the Richat Structure, the so-called Eye of the Sahara, as a landmark for navigating the featureless tan expanse below. That expanse is Mauritania, a country roughly the size of Egypt yet lying almost entirely below 1,000 meters, making it the largest nation on Earth to sit so close to sea level. Here three great realms collide: the Sahara, the Sahel, and the Atlantic.

Read more: Geography of Mauritania on Qualla

Image: Public domain

Geography of Mauritania: The Eye of the Sahara

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LBM1948, CC BY-SA 4.0. For decades the Richat Structure fooled the experts. Its near-perfect circularity, almost 50 kilometers in diameter, suggested a meteorite had slammed into the desert. But the evidence for impact never appeared, the melted rocks and shocked minerals simply weren't there. Geologis...

Read more: Geography of Mauritania on Qualla

Image: LBM1948 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Geography of Mauritania: A Country of Sand and Scarps

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sand covers roughly 40 percent of Mauritania, and it is not all the same sand. Fixed dunes hold coarse, fawn-colored grains in place; mobile dunes carry fine, dustlike reddish sand on the wind, growing larger and more restless toward the north. Across the country run alternating ...

Read more: Geography of Mauritania on Qualla

Image: Ji-Elle | CC BY-SA 3.0

Geography of Mauritania: Three Worlds in One Land

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Henry3bis, CC BY-SA 3.0. The northern two-thirds of Mauritania belong to the Saharan Zone, where a year, or several, can pass without rain, and the dry harmattan wind raises blinding sandstorms. Mornings here can begin near freezing and climb past 49 degrees Celsius by afternoon. South of that lies the S...

Read more: Geography of Mauritania on Qualla

Image: Henry3bis | CC BY-SA 3.0

Geography of Mauritania: The River and the Sea

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jeff Schmaltz, Public domain. Against all this dryness runs a single ribbon of permanent water. The Senegal River, the only perennial river between southern Morocco and central Senegal, traces the country's southern edge, flooding each year to feed the narrow, fertile valley that produces most of Mauritania's...

Read more: Geography of Mauritania on Qualla

Image: Jeff Schmaltz | Public domain

Geography of Mauritania: The Advancing Desert

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jeff Schmaltz, Public domain. Mauritania's geography is not fixed; it is on the move, and the direction is south. Since the prolonged drought that set in during the 1960s, the desert has advanced, pushed along by overgrazing, deforestation, and the stripping of ground cover around wells. The line marking the ...

Read more: Geography of Mauritania on Qualla

Image: Jeff Schmaltz | Public domain