This paper describes the appearance and maintenance of crescentic dune
s in high wind speed conditions on a frozen beach at Schiermonnikoog,
The Netherlands. The dunes were crescentic forms with horns. They were
barchanoidal in plan view, but had reverse morphologies to typical ba
rchans: the highest and steepest slopes were upwind and led to long lo
w slopes downwind. Slipfaces were absent. It is hypothesized that such
crescentic dunes may be a stable aerodynamic form under high to very
high (c.15-20ms(-1)) flow conditions. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, L
td.