What is a dune?

Hill

A dune is a hill or mound of sand drifted by the wind.

A dune is a hill of sand.  Dunes are round along sandy shores of lakes and oceans and in sandy deserts.

They are built by the wind.  At the wind blows, it piles the sand into hills that often look like ocean waves in a vast sea of sand.  A rock or shrub may start a dune.

As the dry sand is carried by the wind it drifts along close to the ground.  When the wind strikes the rock or shrub, it drops some of its load of sand, forming a little hill.

In time the hill blocks more sand and grows into a high hill of sand called a dune.  A very large dune may grow to be 500 feet or more high.

Most of them, however, are much lower.  Dunes change and shift endlessly.

A traveling dune advances in front of the wind as it loses sand on one side and gains it on the other.  Grass and other plants that grow in sand help anchor dunes and keep them from drifting elsewhere. – Dick Rogers

• Posted in: Large Dune
• Tagged: Dry Sand, Dune, Hill, Hill Blocks, Lakes, Mound of Sand, Oceans, Rock, Sandy Desert, Sandy Shores, Shrub, Wind