Geomorphology of sand dunes in the Northeast Taklimakan Desert

Three types of sand dunes exist in the Taklimakan Desert, namely compound/complex crescent dunes and crescent chains, compound dome dunes and compound/complex linear dunes. Besides these three compound/complex types, single simple dunes are also distributed throughout the sand sea. The compound/complex linear dunes are developed under acute bimodal wind regimes. Though the ratios of the resultant drift potential (RDP) and the drift potential (DP) are the same as that near the border and adjacent area of the sand sea, the compound/complex crescent and dome dunes are developed, respectively, because of divergence of the sand available, the stress of the sand-moving winds and the time scales of dune formation. The sand supply for the dunes is not from Lopo Nor in the east as previous studies suggested but mainly from local alluvial or lacustrine deposits. The grain size component does not correlate evidently to the morphology parameters of the sand dunes. Analyses of the DP and drift direction suggest that the northeast Taklimakan is an area of low wind energy and the resultant drift direction (RDD) coincides well with the distribution, morphology and scales of the dunes.