EGU22-2376
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2376
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Spatial and temporal development of the dune instability

Philippe Claudin1, Cyril Gadal2, Clément Narteau3, Ryan C Ewing4, Andrew Gunn5, Douglas Jerolmack6, and Bruno Andreotti7
Philippe Claudin et al.
  • 1Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes, ESPCI Paris-PSL Research University, Université de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France (philippe.claudin@espci.fr)
  • 2Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, CNRS, France (cyril.gadal@imft.fr)
  • 3Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Université de Paris, CNRS, France (narteau@ipgp.fr)
  • 4Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA (rce@tamu.edu)
  • 5Geological Sciences, Stanford University, USA (agunn@stanford.edu)
  • 6Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA (sediment@sas.upenn.edu)
  • 7Laboratoire de Physique, ENS-PSL Research University, Université de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France (andreotti@lps.ens.fr)

Wind-blown sand dunes emerge due the linear instability of a flat sedimentary bed. This instability has been studied in experiments and numerical models but rarely in the field, because of the large time and length scales involved. Here we examine dune formation at the upwind margin of the White Sands Dune Field in New Mexico (USA), using 4 years of lidar topographic data to follow the spatial and temporal development of incipient dunes. Data quantify dune wavelength, growth rate, and propagation velocity and also the characteristic length scale associated with the growth process. We show that all these measurements are in quantitative agreement with predictions from linear stability analysis. This validation makes it possible to use the theory to reliably interpret dune-pattern characteristics and provide quantitative constraints on associated wind regimes and sediment properties, where direct local measurements are not available or feasible.

Reference: Gadal et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. 47, e2020GL088919 (2020).

How to cite: Claudin, P., Gadal, C., Narteau, C., Ewing, R. C., Gunn, A., Jerolmack, D., and Andreotti, B.: Spatial and temporal development of the dune instability, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2376, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2376, 2022.