ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of wind as a geomorphic agent. It explains that, as an agent of erosion, particle-laden wind is most effective in drylands, sandy coasts, and alluvial plains next to glaciers, where it erodes by deflating sediments and the abrasive sandblasting of rocks. It goes on to note that particles caught by the wind hop (saltation), ‘splash up’ from other particles (reptation), ‘float’ (suspension), or roll and slide (creep); and that wind deposits particles by dropping them or ceasing to propel them along the ground. It then mentions landforms produced by wind erosion, including lag deposits and stone pavements, deflation hollows and pans, yardangs and Zeugen, and ventifacts; and wind-deposited sand landforms, which range in size from ripples, through dunes, to dunefields and sand seas, and loess. The chapter then shows how wind erosion can often be a self-inflicted hazard to humans, damaging agricultural and recreational land and harming human health, and looks at models used to predict wind erosion at field and regional scales, with examples that combine physical processes with GIS databases and atmospheric models. Finally, it discusses the aeolian landforms inherited from the times of climate change and transition in the past, when parts of the planet were drier or windier or both.
