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Star Dune

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

  • 26 Accesses

Definition

A large pyramidal dune with three or more arms.

Synonyms

Cone-shaped dune; Demkha; Ghourd (in the Sahara); Pyramidal dune; Sand massif; Stellate dune; Stellate rose (Pye and Tsoar 1990:219 and references therein)

Description

A large pyramidal dune, roughly star-shaped or resembling a pinwheel Fig. 1. They have a central pyramid shaped peak/cone with three or more radial sinuous arms. Slip faces dip in at least three directions. They have a wide variety of shapes.

Morphometry

They are typically 0.5–1 km wide and 50–150 m high (Pye and Tsoar 1990). They are almost always considered as giant dunes (megadunes, see also Andreotti et al. 2009). On Mars, they have similar sizes (e.g., Edgett and Blumberg 1994b).

Subtype

Dune massif: a compound star dune forming an intricate pattern of arms and peaks (Glenn 1979; Fig. 3b); chain of stars – a complex dune where linear dunes are combined with star dunes on their crests (McKee 1979, p. 13).

Formation

Star dunes form in multidirectional...

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References

  • Andreotti B, Fourrière A, Ould-Kaddour F, Murray B, Claudin P (2009) Size of giant dunes limited by the depth of the atmospheric boundary layer. Nature 457:1120–1123

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  • Edgett KS, Blumberg DG (1994a) Found: star and linear dunes on Mars. Lunar Planet Sci Conf XXV:341–342, Houston

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  • Edgett KS, Blumberg DG (1994b) Star and linear dunes on Mars. Icarus 112(2):448–464

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  • Fryberger SG, Dean G (1979) Dune forms and wind regime. In: McKee ED (ed) A study of global sand seas. U.S. Geological Survey professional paper 1052. pp 141–170

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  • Glenn M (ed) (1979) Glossary. In: McKee ED (ed) U.S. Geological Survey professional paper 1052. pp 399–407

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  • Silvestro S, Fenton LK, Michaels TI, Valdez A, Ori GG (2012) Interpretation of the complex dune morphology on Mars: dune activity, modelling and a terrestrial analogue. Earth Surf Process Landf 37:1424–1436

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  • Zhang D, Narteau C, Rozier O, Courrech du Pont S (2012) Morphology and dynamics of star dunes from numerical modelling. Nat Geosci 5:463–467

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Univ Paris Diderot, UMR 7154, CNRS, France

    Clément Narteau

  2. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Mosca, CO, USA

    Andrew Valdez

  3. NASA Ames Research Center/NPP, 239-20, 94035, Moffett Field, CA, USA

    Henrik Hargitai

Authors
  1. Clément Narteau
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  2. Andrew Valdez
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  3. Henrik Hargitai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Clément Narteau .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Ames Research Center/NPP, Moffett Field, CA, USA

    Henrik Hargitai

  2. Konkoly Thege Miklos Astronomical Institute, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Ákos Kereszturi

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Narteau, C., Valdez, A., Hargitai, H. (2015). Star Dune. In: Hargitai, H., Kereszturi, Á. (eds) Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3134-3_447

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