Definition
A climbing dune is a high-order bedform with a lee face on the uphill side of a topographic slope >8° (Chojnacki et al. 2010). Climbing dunes are not stabilized, such as an echo dune.
Synonyms
Rising dune; Sand ramps; Wrap-around dune
A type of obstacle dune
Description
Climbing dunes are bedforms with lee faces on the uphill side and lay on topography >8° in slope (Chojnacki et al. 2010).
Subtypes
“Sand glacier”: sand accumulations formed as broad, fan-shaped plains that develop where sand is blown up the sides of mountains and through passes and saddles to spread out on the opposite side (Stone 1967).
Morphometry
The morphology of climbing dunes is broadly similar to barchanoid dune morphology. However, climbing dunes have sporadic slip faces that form on both spurs as well as gullies, primarily on the lower third of their wall slope. A “sand ramp” morphology (Lancaster and Tchakerian 1996; Chojnacki et al. 2010) or “barchan trains” may be observed, although less...
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References
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Chojnacki, M., Hargitai, H., Kereszturi, Á. (2014). Climbing Dune. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_51-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_51-1
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