North America Many inland eolian dunes are present in North America, including vegetated (stabilized) eolian dunes of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain, dunes of Laurentian Great Lakes region, dunes of the Central and Southern Great Plains, the Nebraska Sand Hills, White Sands (New Mexico), Great Sand Dunes (Colorado), dunes of the southern Colorado Plateau, and dune fields of the Southwest Deserts. ;Baja California The sands of the inland dunes of El Vizcaíno Desert, Baja California, Mexico, come from nearby
alluvial sources. Originally the sands are thought to have derived from
granitoids,
schists as well as
sedimentary and
volcanic rocks. While composition suggest that dune sands come from a
craton setting
geochemistry indicates an
active continental margin setting for the origin of the sand.
South America ;Argentine Pampas Large
fossil dune fields or paleo-dune field exist in
La Pampa Province of Argentina. These dune are vestiges of past climatic conditions that allowed for movement of sand. The dunes are not active any longer as result of the stabilizing effect of grasses. ;Atacama Desert Near
Copiapó in the southern reaches of the
Atacama Desert the largest dunes of Chile exists. Based on an analysis of sediments it has been suggested that the dunes derive from fluvial sediments. A previous explanation suggests that the dunes originated from coastal sand in
marine terraces that were
uplifted, then deflation would have caused this sand to migrate inland. At present the dunes are active but starved of sediment supply. ;Gran Chaco Inland dunes in the
Gran Chaco of
Bolivia and
Paraguay are concentrated at the Andean foothills. Most of these dunes are inactive with some being as old as 33–36 thousand years old.
Europe ;Central Europe Within Central Europe, therefore, inland dunes exclude the belts of
coastal dunes on the
North Sea and
Baltic Sea coasts. Unlike their coastal cousins, inland dunes are
aeolian formations of sand (
dunes) transported and then deposited by wind. They were predominantly created under cold climatic,
periglacial conditions at the end of the
Weichselian and
Würm ice ages, i.e. roughly more than 10,000 years ago. Their development during the
post-glacial period has been heavily influenced by mankind. Best example of such continental sandfields is
Deliblato Sands which is sometimes called the “Sahara of Europe”. It is mainly afforested today, and open sand surface is rare, although the sand is still moving (gradual aeolian blasting). ;Northern Fennoscandia In northern Sweden numerous inactive dunes exists. These dunes were formed in a
Holocene periglacial context when the
Weichsel Ice Sheet was retreating. At present smaller parabolic dunes are forming in northern Sweden due to redeposition of deflated dunes. As recorded by dune
stratification the wind the formed the larger and older dunes blew from northwestern directions. Inland dunes can also be found in
Finnish Lapland north of the
Arctic Circle and in Norway's
Finnmark. == References ==