CRESCENTIC DUNES AT SCHIERMONNIKOOG, THE NETHERLANDS

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.