Sand Landscape

This is a collective term for geomorphic landscapes formed by the accumulation of sand grains, rock fragments and wind-eroded gravels. In arid areas, wind erosion can form large landforms, such as deserts, hamadas, rocky deserts, gobi and salt deserts, and various small and medium-sized features, such as sand dunes, dune ridges, and sand chains. In coastal regions, sand beaches can form, and small sand dunes can sometimes be found on the beach. Sand landscapes contain many interesting natural phenomena, such as sounding sand. Compounded by the extreme inland conditions in desert areas, sand landforms are an important resource for scientific expedition, exploration, tourism and sand therapy (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7

Landscape of wind-accumulated landforms – Taklimakan Desert, Xinjiang Province. (After Dong Zhibao)