Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 8.9. Map showing the dominant wind systems in the Arabian Peninsula and
the location of the Rub al Khali and the Wahiba Sands. (After Glennie et al., 2002
and Singhvi et al., 2012.)
'north') is a strong wind that blows from the north-west down the Persian/Arabian
Gulf before swinging to the south-west and across the hyper-arid Rub al Khali Desert
(
Figure 8.9
). This wind is most evident in the cold winter months and is reminiscent
of the cold north wind that blows up the Nile Valley in winter, causing sand storms
and low visibility almost as far south as Khartoum, as in January 2012. The other
strong wind system is that of the south-west monsoon, which fashioned the dunes of
the Wahiba Sands in eastern Oman, as well as the south-west- to north-east-aligned
linear dunes of the Thar Desert in north-west India. A limited number of TL, OSL
and
14
C ages obtained from sites scattered across a huge area suggest that the history
of dune activity in the far south-east of the Arabian Peninsula, notably in the Wahiba
Sands, differs from that inferred for the rest of the region and is similar to that now
evident in the Thar Desert. As in North Africa, the Last Glacial Maximum (21
±
2 ka) was especially cold, dry and windy in the Rub al Khali and adjacent sand deserts
of Arabia, but the most recent maximum dune accretion occurred somewhat later
in the Wahiba Sands and in the Thar Desert and took place at about the time that
the south-west summer monsoon was becoming stronger once more, in the very late
