Lethal Sandslides from Eolian Dunes

Sedimentary processes of the Bagnold Dunes: Implications for the eolian rock record of Mars

The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity visited two active wind-blown sand dunes within Gale crater, Mars, which provided the first ground-based opportunity to compare Martian and terrestrial eolian dune sedimentary processes and study a modern analog for the Martian eolian rock record. Orbital and rover images of these dunes reveal terrestrial-like and uniquely Martian processes. The prese...

Controls on the height and spacing of eolian ripples and transverse dunes: A numerical modeling investigation

a r t i c l e i n f o Ripples and transverse dunes in areas of abundant sand supply increase in height and spacing as a function of time, grain size, and excess shear velocity. How and why each of these factors influence ripple and transverse dune size, however, is not precisely known. In this paper, the controls on the height and spacing of ripples and transverse dunes in areas of abundant san...

CHILD Eolian Deposition Module

Sedimentary structure of large sand dunes: examples from Dumont and Eureka dunes, California

S U M M A R Y The current research presents ground penetrating radar images up to 30m in depth of two large desert dunes in California, USA— a barchanoid ridge in the Dumont field and a linear dune in the Eureka expanse. The radar images show a complicated structure of internal layering with ascending cross-strata, cross-bedding and bounding surfaces cutting through layers. Additional research ...

Modelling transverse dunes

Transverse dunes appear in regions of mainly unidirectional wind and high sand availability. A dune model is extended to two dimensional calculation of the shear stress. It is applied to simulate dynamics and morphology of transverse dunes which seem to reach lateral invariance and do not stop growing. Hence, simulations of two dimensional dune fields have been performed. Characteristic laws we...