Dibdiba (Saudi Arabia)
al-Dibdiba is an extensive gravel plain in northeastern Saudi Arabia,[1][2]
Location[edit]
It is at Latitude 27.887482 and Longitude 46.470322, south east of Hafr al-Batin, the nearest large town. The plain is bounded on the east by the western boundary of the Saudi Arabia-Kuwait neutral zone, on the west by the Wadi al-Batin and on the south by the gravel ridge of al-Warīʿa.
The plain extends 20 km (12 mi) northward from Saudi Arabia into Kuwait and has an area of c. 30,000 sq. km.
Etymology[edit]
Nomadic tribes live there in the winter on occasion to graze their animals. The name Dibdiba (plural dabadid) is a name given by the Bedouins derived from the name of the noise their clogs make on hard ground.[3]
Geography[edit]
The feature is remarkable for its firm, almost featureless surface, sprinkled with pebbles of limestone, quartz, and igneous rock [4] and saline hydrology.[5][6][7] Despite its arid climate the area does support vegetation[8][9] when it rains.[10]
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Area around Hafar al-Batin after Spring rains -
Area around Hafar al-Batin in Summer -
Ad-Dahna Desert to the south
The plain may have been created by the Wadi al-Batin river system which may have been active 500–3000 BC[11] allowing for deposition of the Dibdiba Formation, similar to an alluvial fan deposit, both morphologically and sedimentologically). The sediments may be 500m deep.[12]
References[edit]
- ^ Dibdiba at iTouchMap.com.
- ^ Ad Dibdiba, Saudi Arabia. at Satelliteviews.net.
- ^ Mandaville, J., "al-Dibdiba." Encyclopaedia of Islam. Brill Online, 2015.
- ^ al-Dibdiba at Brill references.
- ^ Ground‐Water Chemistry of Dibdiba Formation, North Kuwait.
- ^ Moutaz Al-Dabbas, Raad Al- Khafaji, Mohanad H. A. Al-Jaberi, IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGES ON THE HYDROGEOLOGICAL AQUIFERS- CASE STUDY DIBDIBA AQUIFER AT KARBALA – NAJAF AREA, IRAQ (IJRST) 2015, Vol. No. 5, Issue No. III, Jul-Sep. page 24 Archived 2018-04-21 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Mustafa A. Hassan, Laith A. Jawad, AL-Dibdiba Formation Basin Hydrological Aspects Extraction Using GIS techniques and Quantitative Morphometric Analysis (Iraqi Journal of Sciences, 2015).
- ^ By Daoud, Flora of Kuwait, Volume 1 (Routledge, 16 December 2013) page 113.
- ^ Claire O'Neal, We Visit Iraq (Mitchell Lane Publishers, 2011) p 27.
- ^ April Fast, Iraq the Land (Crabtree Publishing Company, 2005) page 12.
- ^ The Pishon River - Found. by C.A. Salabach at Focus Magazine Archived 2012-06-25 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Wolfgang Wagner, Groundwater in the Arab Middle East (Springer Science & Business Media, 2011) p20.
