As protests continue to rock North Africa, heavy winter winds are also kicking up huge dust storms.

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© Nasa
On Wednesday, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured a photo of a massive dust plume over the Mediterranean Sea. The cloud of debris spans hundreds of miles--from the coast of Egypt, slightly west of the Nile River delta, all the way to Crete.

Though the source of the plume is not apparent from the photograph, NASA believes it to be a result of huge dust storms that occurred recently over Egypt and Libya.

Take a look at the dust plume in the natural-color photo (below), and scroll down further to see the storm that may have caused it. Then, look through our slideshow of the world's most severe snowstorms seen from space.

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