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ROBERT P. SHARP Division of Geological Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

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ROBERT P. SHARP Division of Geological Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California ROBERT P. SHARP Division of Geological Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California Kelso Dunes, Mojave Desert, California Abstract: Kelso Dunes lie in a mountain-rimmed can usually be measured in inches in the crestal zone. basin, 35 miles east of their principal sand source, Lee-slope beds dipping 10-25 degrees pre- where the predominant, sand transporting, westerly dominate within these dunes and are overlain by a wind is locally counterbalanced by strong, orog- thin, well-laminated, windward-slope layer inclined raphically controlled winds from other directions. as much as 16 degrees in the opposite direction. In the sand-mantled source area most grains larger Slip-slope deposits as steep as 30 degrees are only than 1 mm travel principally by creep under salta- scantily preserved. tion impact. The size distribution and sorting The orientation of several hundred lee slopes re- characteristics of eolian sand become well established flects only modestly the influence of prevailing after 10-12 miles of saltation transport. Further western winds. Storm winds from other directions, transport produces greater rounding and more earlier winds with a more southerly component, and mineralogical fractionation but does not greatly local orographic controls complicate the picture. alter other characteristics. This suggests that reliable interpretation of paleo- Fifteen years of measurements along established wind directions from cross-bedding in ancient eolian lines across individual transverse dunes record a sandstones requires a knowledge of the type of high degree of activity but only a hesitating ad- dunes represented and their response to a possibly vance, involving three steps forward and two and a varied wind pattern. half steps back. Opposing winds shift the sand back Observations with smoke pots during high winds and forth from one dune flank to the other, with lead to the conclusion that no strong, fixed eddy frequent reversals in crestal asymmetry. lies to the lee of transverse dunes in the Kelso com- Crestal position is not a reliable index of bulk plex. When strong transverse winds blow, currents movement. Dune crests shifted back and forth on the slip face are for the most part capricious and within a 30-40-foot zone, moving several hundred too gentle to produce significant sand movement. feet in 10-12 years but ending up only a few feet Occasional gusts and traveling eddies traverse the from first-observed positions. Greatest accumulation slip face, usually in a longitudinal or oblique direc- and removal changes lie just to either side of the tion. However, no powerful, fixed, lee-side eddy crest and are associated with reversals in dune form. was found which significantly influences dune be- Although tens to hundreds of feet of sand may be havior and morphology in the manner and to the moved, net surface change in level after 10-12 years degree postulated by Vaughan Cornish. CONTENTS Introduction 1046 Dune station 5 1057 General statement 1046 Dune station 9 (wood) 1057 Physical setting 1046 Dune station 9 (iron) 1057 Factors bearing on dune development .... 1046 Dune station 10 1059 Localization 1048 Summary of changes measured on transverse Acknowledgments 1048 dunes 1059 Wind regime 1048 Structures within dunes 1060 Current winds 1048 Bedding 1060 Antecedent conditions 1049 Attitude of bedding in dunes 1062 Dune morphology 1050 Scalloped structure 1064 Elongate dune ridges 1050 Lee-slope orientation and the prevailing wind . 1065 Transverse dunes 1050 Some characteristics of the sand 1067 Lee-slope forms 1050 Grain size 1067 Behavior of individual dune ridges 1052 Effects of eolian transport 1067 Introduction 1052 Grain-size distribution on dunes 1068 Procedure 1052 Mineralogy 1070 Dune station 4 1052 The lee-side eddy concept 1070 Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 77, p. 1045-1074, 19 figs., 5 pis., October 1966 1045 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/77/10/1045/3427721/i0016-7606-77-10-1045.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 1046 R. P. SHARP—KELSO DUNES, MOJAVE DESERT, CALIFORNIA Introduction 1070 17. Rose diagram of predominant lee-slope Field observations 1071 orientations 1067 References cited 1071 18. Percentage size distribution in sand samples from source to dunes 1069 Figure 19. Grain-size distribution on dunes 1070 1. Location map for Kelso Dunes, Mojave Desert, California 1047 2. Geographic details of Kelso Dunes .... 1048 Plate Following 3. Active and inactive areas and wind directions 1049 1. Kelso Dunes and active slip face, Mojave 4. Cross sections through transverse dune ridges 1051 Desert, California 5. Lee slopes in profile 1052 2. Truncated dune and bedding structure . 6. Changes at poles of station 4 in 1953 . 1053 3. Bedding in dune sand and cuspate structure . 1048 7. Summation of changes in inches recorded at 4. Rounding of grains by eolian transport . poles of station 4 over 9-year period . 1054 5. Lee-side smoke behavior 8. Contour map of net changes at station 4, 1- year interval 1055 9. Contour map of net changes at station 4, 6- Table year interval 1056 1. Summation of net changes in inches of sand 10. Summary of changes at poles of station 5 . 1057 recorded at poles of station 4 1054 11. Changes at poles of station 9 (iron) .... 1058 2. Summation of net changes in inches of sand 12. Plot of shifts in position of dune crests . 1061 recorded at poles of station 9 (iron) . 1059 13. Bedding attitudes at station 4 1063 3. Greatest changes of accumulation and removal 14. Bedding attitudes in pits across dune at sta- recorded at poles of station 9 (iron) over a tion 5 1064 span of 5.5 years 1059 15. Rose diagram of lee-slope orientations from 4. Summation of net changes in inches of sand air photos 1065 recorded at poles of station 10 1060 16. Rose diagram of lee-slope orientations from 5. Location and shape of dune crest and orienta- transverse dune-crest trends 1066 tion of lee face at station 10 1060 extending north from Granite Mountains (PI. INTRODUCTION 1, fig. 1). Three small rock knobs rise less than 100 feet at the southern edge of the dunes east General Statement of Cottonwood Wash (Fig. 2). The inference The purpose of this paper is to provide field that other bedrock masses, now buried, might data on morphology, structure, and behavior of have initiated sand accumulation receives little some desert dunes observed under a variety of support from the fact that only alluvium is ex- conditions for periods ranging from a few hours posed beneath dune sand in the walls of Cotton- to a few days over an interval of 15 years, begin- wood Wash as it cuts northward through the ning in 1949. dunes (Fig. 2). At present the dune complex is self-sustained and independent of the underly- Physical Setting ing platform. The highest elevation is 3114 feet Kelso Dunes lie in the eastern Mojave Desert (PI. 1, fig. 1), and it must be underlain by fully of Southern California (Fig. 1) 50 miles west of 700 feet of sand, assuming a 2-degree slope on the Nevada border ( lat. 34° 48' N., long. 115° the alluvial floor and no foreign core. The dune 43' W.). They are reached by well-graded desert mass is egg shaped, with the long axis bearing roads from highways to the north and south. N. 55° E., and covers 45 square miles. Its bor- U. S. Geological Survey 15-minute topographic ders are sharp (Fig. 2), because little sand es- quadrangles, Flynn (1956) and Kerens (1957), capes in the prevailing downwind direction. cover the area. Kelso Dunes are part of a large sand sea Factors Bearing on Dune Development (Hume, 1925, p. 36) called Devils Playground. SOURCE OF SAND: Kelso Dunes are at the They lie in a valley rimmed on the south, east, eastern end of a tongue of eolian sand, 35 miles and north by the Granite, Providence, and long by 2-4 miles wide, which bears S. 80° E., Kelso mountains respectively (D. G. Thomp- essentially parallel to the prevailing wind (Fig. son, 1929, p. 551-552). A north-projecting spur 1). The source is a broad alluvial apron formed of Bristol Mountains only partly blocks the by the Mojave River as it debouches from the western side, leaving a gap through which wind- east end of Afton Canyon. Floods renew the blown sand enters from N. 60° W. supply of sand which is derived from the varied The dunes are well out on the alluvial apron sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic, and vol- Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/77/10/1045/3427721/i0016-7606-77-10-1045.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 INTRODUCTION 1047 canic rock terranes of the Mojave River drain- and presumably sprouts adventitious roots from age. Earlier variations in dune activity, sug- nodes along its stems when buried. Growths of gested by vegetational and morphological rela- galleta grass create humps on dune flanks. tionships, may to some degree reflect changes in MOISTURE: Annual precipitation, including the amount of sand available in the source area. a little snow, is estimated at 3-4 inches (D. G. The last 23 miles of eolian transport are over a Thompson, 1929, p. 548). As widely recognized gentle uphill grade rising about 1000 feet. (Free, 1911, p. 71; Hume, 1925, p. 78; Bagnold, VEGETATION : Vegetation can play an impor- 1941, p. 245-246; Norris and Norris, 1961, p. ~N II6°I|5' II6°"!00 .#^tfton <^<"^Cru«ro'!v0^r.:^.:::'---\ fy, ~ I •$> V, ^^^^^-.. '.tV ^j on Canyon Ludlow Figure 1. Location map for Kelso Dunes, Mojave Desert, California tant role in dune development and behavior 609) dunes have a remarkable power of water (Olson, 1958).
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