A second look at western Sinai seif dunes and their lateral migration

David M. Rubin, Haim Tsoar, Dan G. Blumberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

47 Scopus citations

Abstract

Tsoar et al. [Tsoar, H., Blumberg, D.G., Stoler, Y., 2004. Elongation and migration of sand dunes. Geomorphology 57, 293-302.] reported that seif dunes in the western Sinai Desert did not migrate laterally between 1973 and 1999. If the planform sinuosities of the dunes are removed by filtering, spatial averaging, or linear regression, however, it is evident that the dunes did, in fact, migrate laterally roughly 13 m during this 26-year period. The measured migration distance is 1-2 orders of magnitude greater than the rms co-registration error Tsoar et al. determined for the first and last air photos that were used to map the dunes. The western Sinai dunes provide another example demonstrating that linear dunes can migrate laterally, and they illustrate some of the difficulties in documenting systematic lateral motion. Lateral migration of a dune can be important geologically or geomorphologically, even where migration is too slow to detect from repeated topographic surveys. This article explains the wind conditions for the lateral migration of seif dunes in western Sinai and the possible wind occurrences that would not lead to such a migration.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)335-342
Number of pages8
JournalGeomorphology
Volume93
Issue number3-4
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Jan 2008

Keywords

  • Lateral migration
  • Linear seif dunes
  • Stratification

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Earth-Surface Processes

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