Wind velocities determined from the surface textures of sand grains

Abstract

Krinsley and Smalley1 suggested that ‘upturned plates’, a surface texture that is represented on quartz sand surfaces by a series of thin parallel plates, either continuous or discontinuous parallel to r(10¯11) and z(01¯11), cause the frosting observed on desert sand grains. As these plates depend on the extent of physical abrasion2, the spacing between individual plates might be related to the velocity of the wind which last transported the grains. The technique described here attempts to relate experimental and modern aeolian sand grain surface textures to wind velocity via scanning electron microscopy (SEM)3.