Linear Dunes: Morphology from Google Earth

Abstract

Linear dunes are widespread in the Earth’s deserts and also in some extraterrestrial locations such as Titan and Mars. They show great variety in their forms, and occur in three main classes: simple, compound and complex. Using Google Earth this paper illustrates this diversity. Among the topics covered are simple dunes, linear dunes with tuning fork junctions, linear dunes with complex crests, linear dunes associated with stars, with domes, with zibars, with barchans and with parabolics, and linear dunes controlled by topography.

Keywords

• linear dunes
• tuning forks dunes
• star dunes
• dome dunes
• barchans parabolics
• zibars