Human Fingerprints on an Ancient Landscape

Towering over the desert in southwestern Libya, the Messak Settafet plateau resembles the wall of a giant fortress, with its dark, erosion-resistant sandstone separating the Ubari Sand Sea to the north and the Marzūq Sand Sea to the south. The Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9 captured these images of the plateau on November 17, 2024.