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Article: The Grey Berets.
- Article from:
- Weatherwise
- Article date:
- May 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A MEDLEY OF ROCK OUTCROPPINGS, HUGE dunefields, and fierce summer heat, Iran's Dasht-e Kavir, or Great Salt Desert, appears to be a quintessential desert. But this remote area also hosts a spectacle almost completely unknown in the world's other arid lands: the haboob. Not quite a sandstorm and not really a cloud, a haboob is created from a thunderstorm's turbulence, when fine, talcum-like dust is lifted into the air and remains suspended for hours, sometimes days. While few have witnessed this eerie phenomenon, the haboob drifted into the annals of history one spring evening in 1980.
In late April that year, the Dasht-e Kavir was the site of a secret refueling ...