ABSTRACT
The power of the wind in extreme meteorological events is evident from hurricane, typhoon and tornado damage to property and the resultant human misery. Wind translates this power into geomorphic work indirectly through its ability to drive waves in the coastal zone, and move sand or silt to produce dunes or loess. Its direct geomorphic impact, however, is much less closely associated with planetary storm belts and is restricted largely to redistributing and ornamenting products of other processes. The predominance of quartz sand and silicic silt in aeolian (wind-blown) sediments denotes a final sorting of the residual fractionates of other denudation processes. Wind is linked romantically with ever-shifting sand seas of Earth’s hot deserts and their nomadic peoples. Common landform terms are often Arabic in origin for this reason but the presence of coastal sand dunes, extensive Pleistocene loess (aeolian dust) belts and dustbowls on intensively farmed land in more humid, mid-latitude areas is testimony to its opportunistic attack on susceptible materials everywhere. Building sites, urban landscapes in general and exposed mountain tops provide additional sources of airborne particles. Wind agency is also important in desertification, where it exacerbates land degradation processes (see Chapter 27).
