Unraveling the Mysteries: Investigating the Potential Former Volcano in the Hamad Plateau, Syrian Desert

Unraveling the Mysteries: Investigating the Potential Former Volcano in the Hamad Plateau, Syrian Desert

Ever heard of the Syrian Desert? Probably not, unless you’re a geography buff. It’s a massive, arid expanse – we’re talking about 500,000 square kilometers! – stretching across Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. And smack-dab in the middle of it, you’ll find the Hamad Plateau. Now, this isn’t your typical sand-dune desert. It’s a rocky, relatively flat, and somewhat desolate place. But here’s where it gets interesting: whispers have started circulating about a peculiar geological feature on the plateau. Could it be? A long-dormant, maybe even forgotten, volcano?

The Hamad Plateau: A Quick Look

Imagine a high, rocky tableland – that’s the Hamad Plateau in a nutshell. It’s mostly limestone, covered with these shiny, hard rocks called chert gravel. Think of it as nature’s cobblestone. The plateau sits pretty high, too, between 700 and 900 meters above sea level, with some peaks poking even higher than that. Rain? Forget about it. You’re lucky if you get 13 centimeters a year, and when it does rain, it just trickles into these salty flats.

Now, the whole Syrian Desert has been shaped by volcanoes erupting in the past. These lava flows acted like natural barriers, kind of like walls, which didn’t help the plants and animals trying to live there, or even people trying to settle down. And the Hamad Plateau? It has this cool radial drainage pattern, like water flowing off a dome, which tells you something about its geological history.

Volcanic Clues in the Syrian Desert

Okay, so the Hamad Plateau itself is mostly limestone, but the bigger Syrian Desert? That’s a different story. There’s plenty of evidence of volcanic activity. The area is part of this huge volcanic field called Harrat Ash Shaam, which stretches all the way from Syria down through Jordan and into Saudi Arabia. We’re talking about massive lava flows and those classic cone-shaped volcanoes, telling us that this area has seen some serious volcanic action in the past.

Take Es Safa, for example, southeast of Damascus. It’s riddled with vents that were active not that long ago, geologically speaking. There was even a boiling lava lake spotted there around 1850! Then you’ve got Jabal ad Druze in southern Syria, with over a hundred eruption spots. It’s like nature’s way of saying, “Yeah, this place used to be hot stuff.”

Digging into the Potential Volcano

So, what’s the deal with this possible volcano on the Hamad Plateau? Well, it’s this shallow, cone-shaped thing, rising from about 600 meters at the edge to 700 meters in the middle. That shape, plus the lava fields nearby, makes you wonder if it’s volcanic.

One possibility is that it’s connected to As-Safa (also called Tulul al-Safa), a basaltic lava field that’s volcanic in origin and located northeast of the Jabal Al-Arab volcanic plateau. As-Safa covers a large area and has at least 38 cinder cones. It’s last activity was around 1850, when someone spotted a lava lake.

The Volcanic Style of the Region

When volcanoes erupted in Harrat Ash Shaam and the Syrian Desert, they mainly spewed out basalt. Think of it as more of a slow, oozing kind of eruption, creating lava plateaus and fields. And you often get those classic cinder cones, built up from ash and debris.

Why basalt? It has to do with the area’s geology, the Red Sea Rift, and the Arabian Plate. Basically, the movement of the Arabian Plate and the opening of the Red Sea have caused volcanoes to erupt here for millions of years.

Hamad: More Than Just a Name

The word “Hamad” itself actually describes a type of desert. It’s a high, rocky plateau where the wind has blown away most of the sand, leaving behind bare rock, gravel, and boulders. So, calling the Hamad Plateau a “stony semi-desert” is pretty accurate.

Final Thoughts

Okay, we can’t say for sure without getting some geologists out there with their hammers and magnifying glasses, but the evidence is pretty compelling: this feature on the Hamad Plateau might just be the remains of an old volcano. The surrounding lava fields, cinder cones, and basalt formations all point in that direction. The Hamad Plateau, as part of the bigger Harrat Ash Shaam volcanic field, shows us that this area has a wild geological past, shaped by eruptions and the Earth’s shifting plates. We need more research to fully understand this fascinating landscape and its volcanic secrets. Who knows what else we might discover?