Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
12
AEOLIAN LANDSCAPES
Where conditions are dry and the ground surface bare, wind is a forceful instrument of erosion and deposition. This
chapter covers:
places where wind is an important geomorphic agent
landforms fashioned by wind erosion
landforms fashioned by wind deposition
humans and wind processes
Wind in action
As an agent of transport, and therefore of erosion and deposition, the work of the wind is familiar wherever loose surface materials are
unprotected by a covering of vegetation. The raising of clouds of dust from ploughed fields after a spell of dry weather and the drift of
wind-swept sand along a dry beach are known to everyone. In humid regions, except along the seashore, wind erosion is limited by the
prevalent cover of grass and trees and by the binding action of moisture in the soil. But the trials of exploration, warfare and prospecting
in the desert have made it hardly necessary to stress the fact that in arid regions the effects of the wind are unrestrained. The 'scorching
sand-laden breath of the desert' wages its own war on nerves. Dust-storms darken the sky, transform the air into a suffocating blast
and carry enormous quantities of material over great distances. Vessels passing through the Red Sea often receive a baptism of fine
sand from the desert winds of Arabia; and dunes have accumulated in the Canary Islands from sand blown across the sea from the
Sahara.
(Holmes 1965, 748-9)
