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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Hydrology: Desertification
  • Hydrology: Geomorphology: general
  • Mathematical Geophysics: Instability analysis
  • Nonlinear Geophysics: Nonlinear waves, shock waves, solitons

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 32, L21403, 5 PP., 2005
doi:10.1029/2005GL024179

Collision of barchan dunes as a mechanism of size regulation

Pascal Hersen

Physics Department, Danish Technical University, Lyngby, Denmark

Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

Stéphane Douady

Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

Barchans are propagating crescentic dunes that form in arid regions where strong, unidirectional winds blow across a firm soil lightly covered with sand. Recently, solitary barchan dunes have been shown to be unstable towards sand flux variation either growing to form mega-dunes or shrinking and disappearing when perturbed from equilibrium. However, observations of large corridors of barchan dunes in the field suggest that these bedforms are stable over long periods of time. Since dunes' migration rates are inversely proportional to their size, barchans of different size must collide and these collisions may be crucial in maintaining the stability of dunes in nature. Here, we first explain the unstable behavior of solitary barchans and then illustrate, using down-scaled physical experiments, the qualitative dynamics of binary collisions. A stability analysis, inspired by these experiments, suggests that collisions may indeed regulate the size of barchans migrating in a corridor by redistributing sand from large dunes to smaller ones.

Received 26 July 2005; accepted 21 September 2005; published 3 November 2005.

Citation: Hersen, P., and S. Douady (2005), Collision of barchan dunes as a mechanism of size regulation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L21403, doi:10.1029/2005GL024179.

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