Geomorphic indicators of Holocene winds in Egyptʹs Western Desert

Geomorphic mapping of Egyptʹs Western Desert from LANDSAT-MSS images reveals oriented aeolian landforms that record, in part, Holocene winds. Wind directions reconstructed from these landforms indicate the dominance of N–S airflow from 30°N to 20°N, turning clockwise southward to NE–SW, conformable with modern circulation. A second direction appears over western Egypt, W between 30°N and 26°N, NW between 26°N and 20°N. Cross-cutting aeolian landforms show that W/NW winds are older than the N/NE winds. Geomorphic evidence, abundant south to 26°N and less abundant to 20°N, also indicates that W and NW winds were early Holocene ‘palaeowesterlies’. Some evidence also indicates that they extended eastward to at least 30°E, perhaps to the Red Sea. These winds steered moist Atlantic/Mediterranean air masses to Egypt, sustaining early Holocene lakes and playas north of the limit of tropical monsoonal rainfall at 20°N. Upon aridification, beginning after 5 kyr BP, yardangs oriented west to east were eroded in early Holocene basinal sediments in western Egypt, indicating that these winds continued there for 1–2 kyr, until 3–4 kyr BP. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages of surface sand sheet in southern Egypt indicate that the present north–south winds were established ca. 3–4 kyr BP, at the same time as the northern savanna boundary was stabilized at its present position.