Dunes grow, change their shape and fade away. This book demonstrates that the evolution of eolian sand and dunes is under control of climatic change, permafrost, vegetational growth, soil formation and human interference. The European sand belt spreads from the Netherlands through Germany and Poland into Russia as inland dune fields up to a hight of several meters as well as large carpets of thin eolian sand, the so-called coversand. This book illuminates the origin of this enormous sand masses from their first traces during the Saalian glaciation through the Weichselian glaciation up to present times. Periods of strong eolian activity change with periods of dune stability. The interior of the dunes exhibits striking interruptions of eolian activity by a large variety of fossil soils. The individual character of these soils allows to interprete the eolian sand movements period by period through the history of the last 150.000 years. All in all the book offers details of modern research on dune sand as well as comprehensive chapters of the recent state of knowledge on dune formation.

This book in two volumes, and with a foreword by the renowned Professor M.A.J. Williams, draws on evidence from coastal and inland regions, including desert dunes, wind-blown dust, river and lake sediments, glacial moraines, plant and animal fossils, isotope geochemistry, soils and prehistoric archaeology to better understand the genesis and development of dunes systems in selected northern hemisphere sand dunes from Asia, Africa and the Middle East regions. The collection of research papers and case studies that are presented in this book provide the reader with a wealth of information about the distribution and types of sand dunes and an insight into the complexity of sand dune formation, migration and management. Research in many countries across the northern hemisphere shows that dunes, whether coastal or inland, are under pressure around the world. Much of the pressure comes from human activities, and the anthropogenic disturbance, when coupled with global warming and alterations to the amount, frequency and temporal distribution of precipitation could lead to more serious management challenges in the future. There is much that we still need to find out about the origin, genesis and development of sand dunes so that they can be managed better. The difficult and complex questions being repeatedly raised can be answered only by interdisciplinary endeavours. Geomorphologists, geologists, palaeontologists, climatologists, ecologists, and others, can work together on research projects that better define the origin, evolution and development of dunes, both inland and along the coasts. Many chapters in this book attempt to reconstruct past climatic changes in deserts and their margins at a variety of scales in space and time in the expectation that such information might assist in preparing us for future global warming and drying.

Sand dunes are a globally important depositional landform and sedimentary system. Their origins and dynamics are important in understanding how deserts have evolved in response to climate change and changes in sand supply and mobility, and how they will continue to evolve in the future. This book provides a state-of-the-art review of the characteristics of desert dunes and their sediments, and explores their dynamics on timescales from days to millennia as they respond to changes in wind speed and direction, precipitation and sand supply. This extensively revised edition reflects the advances in our understanding of desert dunes, their dynamics and history; and covers recent developments including the luminescence dating revolution, ground penetrating radar and advances in numerical modeling. Also covering dunes on Mars and Titan, this authoritative reference is a must-have for researchers and graduate students working on desert dunes and aeolian geomorphology.

It is more than half a century since the publication of R. A. Bagnold’s classic book The physics of blown sand and desert dunes, and it is a tribute to the quality of Bagnold’s work that many of the fundamental principles which he developed - main valid today. His book continues to be essential reading for any serious s- dent of aeolian processes. However, the past two decades have seen an explosion in the scale of research dealing with aeolian transport processes, sediments, and landforms. Some of this work has been summarized in review papers and edited conference proceedings, but this book provides the rst attempt to review the whole eld of aeolian sand research. Inevitably, it has not been possible to cover all - pects in equal depth, and the balance of included material naturally re ects the - thors’ own interests to a signi cant degree. However, our aim has been to provide as broad a perspective as possible, and to provide an entry point to an extensive mul- disciplinary scienti c literature, some of which has not been given the attention it deserves in earlier textbooks and review papers. Many examples are drawn from existing published work, but the book also makes extensive use of our own research in the Middle East, Australia, Europe, and North America. The book has been written principally for use by advanced undergraduates, po- graduates, and more senior research workers in geomorphology and sedimentology.

Volume 2 of the book ‘Sand Dunes of the Northern Hemisphere’ is sub-titled Characteristics, Dynamics and Provenance of Sand Dunes in the Northern Hemisphere. It brings together a vast body of information and insight into sand dune and desert systems from North Asia, Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. Chapters from the Russian Federation include studies on dune systems within the permafrost zone and there is a case study from temperate zone dune system in coastal Japan. Volume 2: Characteristics, Dynamics and Provenance of Sand Dunes in the Northern Hemisphere of 16 chapters in three Parts, focusses on Saharan Africa, Egypt, and Middle East and gives attention to sand mobility and encroachment with case studies from a number of countries where these matters are of concern. We also include chapters on the remote dunes in the permafrost zone and in the hyper-arid deserts of Iran. Case studies are used to highlight the characteristics of dunes and their interaction with humans in several widely divergent settings. Volume 2 concludes with some musing on the value of study of the past as key to the future and speculates on what the future might hold in the light of a warmer and drier Earth and a rise in sea level that threaten large tracts of low-lying land with marine incursions and destruction from storm surge. PART 4 Sand Mobility and Encroachment The seven chapters in this Part examine the real-world impact of sand encroachment and dune migration on people and their economic activities and the health, welfare and financial implications related to destruction of infrastructure, including human habitations. PART 5 Sand Dune Landscapes Distribution, Formation and Management Seven Case studies from several geographic regions in Africa, the Middle East, north-east Asia are presented here to demonstrate the underlying mechanisms in dune formation and the diverse approaches to their management. Human impacts such as sand mining, tourism development, combine with natural forces like climate variability to challenge the realization of an optimum management strategy. PART 6 Concluding Thoughts: Coping with an Unknown Future from a Little-known Past The two chapters in Part 6 have special roles. We are privileged to publish new research findings that are summarized here in Chapter 38 from extensive and detailed work conducted in the Kyzyl Kum, and Karakum sand seas of Central Asia. There is a strong belief that further study of the little-known past such as revealed in this study could unlock clues as to what a future Earth might look like. This leads on to speculation in Chapter 39 about the implications of what we already know about global change (not only climate change) and the impact of the Anthropocene on the dune systems, both inland and coastal. Sea level rise, marine incursions and an increase in extreme weather events will affect dune systems and sand seas on the Northern Hemisphere (and beyond).

A synthesis of the environmental and climatic history of every major desert and desert margin, for researchers and advanced students.

Inland sand dunes are widespread in North America and are found from the North Slope of Alaska to the Sonoran Desert in northern Mexico and from the Delmarva Peninsula in the east to Southern California in the west. In this edited book, we highlight recent research on areas of inland dunes that span a range from those that are actively accumulating in current conditions of climate and sediment supply to those that were formed in past conditions and are now degraded relict systems. This book will be of interest to researchers and scholars of physical geography, geomorphology, environmental sciences, and earth sciences. Contributions include detailed analyses of individual active dune systems at White Sands, New Mexico; Great Sand Dunes, Colorado; and the Laurentian Great Lakes; as well as the vegetation-stabilized dunes of the Nebraska Sand Hills and the Colorado Plateau. Additional chapters discuss the widespread partially vegetated dune systems of the central and southern Great Plains; the relict dunes of the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the eastern USA; and active and stabilized dunes of the Colorado Plateau and the southwestern deserts of the USA and northern Mexico.

This book describes how sand dunes work, why they are the way they are in different settings, and how they are being studied. Particular attention is paid to their formation and appearance elsewhere in the solar system. New developments in knowledge about dunes make for an interesting story – like the dunes themselves, dune science is dynamic – and the visual appeal of Aeolian geomorphology ensures that this is an attractive volume. The book is divided into 4 parts, the first of which introduces dunes as a planetary phenomenon, showing a landscape reflecting the balance of geological processes – volcanism, impact, tectonics, erosion, deposition of sediments. Dunes are then considered as emergent dynamical systems: the interaction of sand and wind conspires to generate very characteristic and reproducible shapes. Analogies are given with other emergent structures such as patterned ground before the influence of dunes on desert peoples and infrastructure is studied, together with their use as forensic climatological indicators. Dune Physics is looked at with regard to the mechanics of sand, the physics of wind, saltation – interaction of sand and air – dunes versus ripples and transverse Aeolian ridges, the classification of dune morphology and the sources and sinks of sand. Dune Trafficability considers soil mechanics, effects on mobility on Earth, Mars and elsewhere. In the second part, Earth, Mars, Titan and other moons and planets are examined, beginning with a survey of the major deserts and dunefields on Earth. The authors then turn to Mars and its environment, sediment type, dune stratigraphy, sediment source and sinks and the association of dunes with topographic features. Titan follows - its thick, cold atmosphere, methane dampness, low gravity, morphology – interaction with topography and the implications of dunes for climate and winds. Dunes elsewhere conclude this part. There are few dunefields on Venus, but there is a .possibility of Aeolian transport on Triton and volcanic-related windstreaks on Io.