Grand Erg Oriental small but ancient settlement of Ghadames at the Libyan frontier. Another and better road from Hassi Messaoud goes south, also crossing the grand erg where it passes a well called "Hassi Tartrat", before reaching the erg's far side. Further south lies the Ahaggar mountains. The cities of Wargla and Touggourt lie outside the western limits of the erg. Nearby, within the accepted boundaries of the "Grand Erg Oriental", the landscape is described as being "practically free from [sand] dunes" evidently due to strong, persistent winds. Petroleum and other hydrocarbons have been extracted in Algeria, from areas in and surrounding the
Erg is still widely used in astrophysics and sometimes in mechanics. Erg The erg is a unit of energy and work equal to 10 joules. It originated in the centimetre–gram–second (CGS) system of units. It has the symbol "erg". The erg is not an SI unit. Its name is derived from "ergon" (ἔργον), a Greek word meaning "work" or "task". An erg is the amount of work done by a force of one dyne exerted for a distance of one centimeter. In the CGS base units, it is equal to one gram centimeter-squared per second-squared (g·cm/s). It is thus equal to