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10 - Desert dune environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2016

By
David S.G. Thomas
Edited by
Jasper Knight  and
Stefan W. Grab
Jasper Knight
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Stefan W. Grab
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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Summary

Abstract

The distribution and diverse nature of dunes in southern African drylands makes them a complex and enigmatic landscape component. While dunes are dominant landscape features in large areas of the Kalahari and Namib deserts, localised and topographically constrained dunes elsewhere are also an important part of the continental dune record. Over 600 published luminescence ages from dune sediments through the subcontinent should, in theory, make possible chronometrically robust analyses of the Quaternary palaeoclimate record. Compared to early aridity- and morphology-focussed interpretations of the dune record, in which three or four phases of dune development were proposed with a focus on the period of the Last Glacial Maximum, today’s data demonstrate a complex and regionally variable record of dune development, with almost continuous dune accumulation through the last 30 kyr preserved in the southwest Kalahari and a more sporadic record in presently wetter eastern and northern areas. Dune geomorphological proxies require careful evaluation before Quaternary climate inferences can be usefully made.

Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary Environmental Change in Southern Africa
Physical and Human Dimensions
 , pp. 153 - 169
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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