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Emergence of oblique dunes in a landscape-scale experiment

Nature Geoscience volume 7, pages 99–103 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Aeolian dunes in many arid environments on Earth are shaped by seasonally varying bimodal wind regimes. However, the dynamics of dune evolution under such wind regimes are difficult to investigate at the time and length scales of laboratory experiments1. These bedforms, in their natural environments2,3,4, may also be influenced by unknown initial conditions and a variety of factors such as sediment availability5, vegetation6 and cohesion7. Here we report results from a landscape-scale experiment in which we examine the evolution of bedforms under asymmetric bimodal winds. After flattening an experimental dunefield across 16 hectares of the Tengger Desert in Inner Mongolia, we measured winds and topography from March 2008 to October 2011 to reveal the development of regular dune patterns with a constant wavelength and increasing amplitude. On a seasonal timescale, we show that individual dunes propagate in different directions according to the prevailing wind. We find that the orientation of dune crests is controlled by the combination of the normal contributions of the two dominant winds, with respect to their relative strengths and directions, such that crests form an oblique angle of 50° with the resultant sand flux. Our landscape-scale experiment suggests that the alignment of aeolian dunes can be used to determine wind forcing patterns on the Earth and other planetary bodies.

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Figure 1: The landscape-scale experiment site in the Tengger Desert.
Figure 2: Development of surface undulations in the open corridor.
Figure 3: Morphology and dynamics of individual dunes according to seasonal winds.
Figure 4: Oblique bedform alignment and lateral dune migration.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to O. Rozier, D. Rubin, M. Holschneider and S. Rodriguez for helpful discussions. We acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no 41130533 and 41271021), the UnivEarthS LabEx program of Sorbonne Paris Cité (ANR-10-LABX-0023 and ANR-11-IDEX-0005-02), the French National Research Agency (ANR-09-RISK-004/GESTRANS and ANR-12-BS05-001-03/EXO-DUNES), the French Chinese International laboratory SALADYN and the city of Paris. Images of Fig. 1 are courtesy of Google Earth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 West Donggang Road, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China

    Lü Ping, Zhibao Dong & Zhengcai Zhang

  2. Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Univ Paris Diderot, UMR 7154 CNRS, 1 rue Jussieu, Paris 75238, Cedex 05, France

    Lü Ping & Clément Narteau

  3. Laboratoire Matière et Système Complexes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Univ Paris Diderot, UMR 7057 CNRS, Bâtiment Condorcet, 10 rue Alice Domon et Léonie Duquet, Paris 75205, Cedex 13, France

    Sylvain Courrech du Pont

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  1. Lü Ping
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  2. Clément Narteau
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  3. Zhibao Dong
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  4. Zhengcai Zhang
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  5. Sylvain Courrech du Pont
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Contributions

L.P. and Z.D. designed the experimental study. Z.Z. carried out the field measurements. L.P. carried out all statistical data analysis. C.N., Z.D. and S.C.d.P. designed the research and wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results.

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Correspondence to Lü Ping or Clément Narteau.

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Ping, L., Narteau, C., Dong, Z. et al. Emergence of oblique dunes in a landscape-scale experiment. Nature Geosci 7, 99–103 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2047

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