Abstract
Star dunes are giant, pyramid-shaped dunes composed of interlaced arms. These arms are marked by sinuous crests and slip faces of various directions1,2. Their radial symmetry and scale suggest that the star dunes form as a result of complex interactions between a multidirectional wind regime and topography3,4. However, despite their ubiquity in modern sand seas5,6, comparatively little is known about their formation and evolution. Here we present a discrete numerical model of star-dune behaviour based on the feedback mechanisms between wind flow and bedform dynamics7. Our simulations indicate that the morphology of star dunes results from the combination of individual longitudinal dunes. We find that the arms of the star dunes propagate only under favourable wind regimes. In contrast to dunes that form from an erodible bed8, the crests of the propagating arms are oriented such that sand flux is maximized in the direction of arm growth. Our analysis of the simulated three-dimensional structures suggests that the morphodynamics of the arms are controlled by the frequency of wind reorientation, with a high frequency of reorientation leading to smaller arm dimension and high rates of growth. We suggest that arm propagation is an important process of mass exchange in dune fields.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Wasson, R. & Hyde, R. Factors determining desert dune type. Nature 304, 337–339 (1983).
Lancaster, N. Star dunes. Prog. Phys. Geogr. 13, 67–91 (1989).
Lancaster, N. The dynamics of star dunes: An example from the Gran Desertio, Mexico. Sedimentology 36, 273–289 (1989).
Zhang, W., Qu, J., Dong, Z., Li, X. & Wang, W. The air flow field and dynamic processes of pyramid dunes. J. Arid Environ. 45, 357–368 (2000).
Nielson, J. & Kocurek, G. Surface processes, deposits, and development of star dunes: Dumont dune field, California. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 99, 177–186 (1987).
Lancaster, N. Geomorphology of Desert Dunes (Routledge, 1995).
Narteau, C., Zhang, D., Rozier, & Claudin, P. Setting the length and time scales of a cellular automaton dune model from the analysis of superimposed bed forms. J. Geophys. Res. 114, F03006 (2009).
Rubin, D. & Hunter, R. Bedform alignment in directionally varying flows. Science 237, 276–278 (1987).
Bagnold, R. A. The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes (Methuen, 1941).
Pye, K. & Tsoar, H. Aeolian Sand and Sand Dunes (Unwin Hyman, 1990).
Lancaster, N. in Eolian Sediments and Processes (eds Brookfield, M. E. & Ahlbrandt, T. S.) 261–289 (Elsevier, 1983).
Breed, C. & Grow, T. in A Study of Global Sand Seas (ed. McKee, E.) 252–302 (Professional Paper 1052, US Geological Survey, 1979).
Hersen, P., Douady, S. & Andreotti, B. Relevant length scale of barchan dunes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 264301 (2002).
Elbelrhiti, H., Claudin, P. & Andreotti, B. Field evidence for surface-wave-induced instability of sand dunes. Nature 437, 720–723 (2005).
Andreotti, B., Fourrière, A., Ould-Kaddour, F., Murray, B. & Claudin, P. Size of giant dunes limited by the depth of the atmospheric boundary layer. Nature 457, 1120–1123 (2009).
Werner, B. T. Eolian dunes: Computer simulations and attractor interpretation. Geology 23, 1107–1111 (1995).
Hersen, P. Flow effects on the morphology and dynamics of aeolian and subaqueous barchan dunes. J. Geophys. Res. 110, F04S07 (2005).
Parteli, E. J. R., Durán, O., Tsoar, H., Schwämmle, V. & Herrmann, H. J. Dune formation under bimodal winds. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 22085–22089 (2009).
Rubin, D. & Ikeda, H. Flume experiments on the alignment of transverse, oblique, and longitudinal dunes in directionally varying flows. Sedimentology 37, 673–684 (1990).
Reffet, E., Courrech du Pont, S., Hersen, P. & Douady, S. Formation and stability of transverse and longitudinal sand dunes. Geology 38, 491–494 (2010).
Taniguchi, K., Endo, N. & Sekiguchi, H. in EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts Vol. 11 (eds Arabelos, D. N. & Tscherning, C. C.) abstr. 6531 (2009).
Zhang, D., Narteau, C. & Rozier, O. Morphodynamics of barchan and transverse dunes using a cellular automaton model. J. Geophys. Res. 115, F03041 (2010).
Frisch, U., Hasslacher, B. & Pomeau, Y. Lattice-gas automata for the Navier-Stokes equation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 56, 1505–1508 (1986).
Cooke, R., Warren, A. & Goudie, A. Desert Geomorphology (UCL Press, 1993).
Hersen, P. et al. Corridors of barchan dunes: Stability and size selection. Phys. Rev. E 69, 011304 (2004).
Bristow, C. S., Bailey, S. D. & Lancaster, N. The sedimentary structure of linear sand dunes. Nature 406, 56–59 (2000).
Edgett, K. S. & Blumberg, D. G. Star and linear dunes on mars. Icarus 112, 448–464 (1994).
Claudin, P. & Andreotti, B. A scaling law for aeolian dunes on Mars, Venus, Earth, and for subaqueous ripples. Earth Planet Sci. Lett. 252, 30–44 (2006).
Breed, C., Grolier, M. & McCauley, J. Morphology and distribution of common sand dunes on Mars: Comparison with the Earth. J. Geophys. Res. 84, 8183–8204 (2006).
Bourke, M. C. Barchan dune asymmetry: Observations from Mars and Earth. Icarus 205, 183–197 (2010).
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge financial support from the LabEx UnivEarthS, a Paris Diderot BQR grant, the French National Research Agency (grant ANR-09-RISK-004/GESTRANS) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 40930105). We thank S. Rodriguez for commenting on the manuscript. Images of Fig. 1 are courtesy of Google Earth and B. Andreotti.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
D.Z. carried out all numerical simulations and statistical data analysis. O.R. developed the real-space cellular automaton, a free sofware under GNU general public license. C.N. and S.C.d.P. designed the study and wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Information (PDF 2128 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, D., Narteau, C., Rozier, O. et al. Morphology and dynamics of star dunes from numerical modelling. Nature Geosci 5, 463–467 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1503
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1503
This article is cited by
-
Structure and chronology of a star dune at Erg Chebbi, Morocco, reveals why star dunes are rarely recognised in the rock record
Scientific Reports (2024)
-
Morphologic changes of simple star dunes during the growth process in Dunhuang, China
Journal of Mountain Science (2022)
-
On the main components of landscape evolution modelling of river systems
Acta Geophysica (2020)
-
DEM-based morphometry of large-scale sand dune patterns in the Grand Erg Oriental (Northern Sahara Desert, Africa)
Arabian Journal of Geosciences (2018)
-
Unravelling raked linear dunes to explain the coexistence of bedforms in complex dunefields
Nature Communications (2017)