About 10% of a

non-polar desert is Arid and Semi-Arid

dune covered
Landscapes
World's Deserts about 1/5th of land

Types: subtropical, rain-shadow,

coastal, interior, polar
 Semi-Arid
Semi-arid (Steppe, Savannah, dry grassland) has
Precipitation (mm) > 10 x Temperature in oC but < than 20x
Flash Floods

Role of Desert Varnish, lack of plant cover

Stream Flood
Desert Landforms Produced By
ba Water
ja
da
alluvial fan

Insel
berg
pla
ya
arroyo
pedim
ent

pla
ya
Arroyo - Water-Carved Canyon

Usually dry
 Playa, Salar, Sabkha
A Playa in Death Valley, California

Evaporite Pan of dried-up Playa

Inselberg, Monadnock, Kopje

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Pediment
 Eolian Processes

The physics of wind generated landforms

is studied using sand grains in wind
tunnels

Wind storm, Lothagam Hill dunes

 Physics of Wind Transport

Sandstorm

• Air has low density, so wind is a relatively minor

agent of geomorphic change
• Rock density 2000 times density same volume of air
so rock fragments are difficult to lift with air.
• A one meter per second (1 m/sec) flow of water lifts
the same particle as about 30 m/sec flow of air
 Toadstools
• "Undercut, mushroom shaped pedestal
rocks in desert areas are commonly
attributed to wind erosion"

• This area is frequently hit with high

sandstorms.

Water and wind formed erosional features such as this toadstool

Wind-Borne Sediment causes
deflation and abrasion
Sahara to Caribbean
Effect on Hurricanes

Surface creep
 Desert Pavements or Reg

Note desert varnish, lack of sand, Iron and

Manganese oxides over everything
Infiltration is slow – Flash Floods, and most water
leaves the area
Desert Pavements (cont'd) –

Hammada (Hamada) = barren rock

Makes a great runway for supply aircraft

Just clear away a few big rocks
We tow makeshift rakes behind our Land Rovers

Desert Pavement
Source: Martin Miller
Erosional Landform - Deflation Hollow
Abrasion Origin of Ventifacts
 Erosional Landforms - Ventifacts
Wind eroded (sand blasted) surfaces
 Erosional Landform - Yardangs

White Desert, Egypt

 Deposition Landforms of Eolian
Sands
• Reduced wind velocity results in sediments
deposition

• Dunes are hills of loose wind-born sand

• Size, shape, and orientation of dunes are

determined by available sand, vegetation, and
wind
Only 10% of desert surface

Sand drift in Lee Of Mountains

 Dunes form in a lee

High velocity zone

Dunes are accumulations in the lee of local obstructions, possibly an upwind dune
 Dune Migration
Windward slope Slip face (deposition)
erosion and transport

Just like ripples in a stream

Star Dunes
 Star Dunes

Variable Wind Direction

Copyright © Frank Eckardt 2002

 Longitudinal Dunes

Constant wind direction, no vegetation

 Longitudinal Dunes

Constant wind direction, no vegetation

 Transverse Dunes

Massive volumes of sand, slow but consistent winds

 Transverse Dunes

Massive volumes of sand, low consistent winds

 Barchan Dunes

Isolated Dunes, low sand supply, migrating across rock

 Barchan Dunes
• Isolated – low sand supply; migrating across rock
 Parabolic Dunes

Horns pinned by plants

Typical of coasts
 Parabolic Dunes
• Stabilized “horns" point upwind
Dunes in Victoria Crater -
Mars
 Suspended Load Transport and Deposition

• In dry areas very high winds can suspend fine sand particles
Suspended Load Dust
 Loess from the Columbia River Basin

•Loess deposits are (usually) of glacial outwash silt. These thin downwind.
 Global loess
• Origins
– Desert
– Glacial

Layers of dust from Patagonia appear in Vostok cores just prior to interglacials