Aeolian processes
Also called: Work of wind · Topic: Landforms and their Evolution: Rivers, Groundwater, Glaciers, Waves and Wind · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Landforms and their Evolution"
Meaning
Aeolian processes are the work done by wind. They matter most in hot deserts. Bare desert floors heat up fast, which creates turbulence (rough, mixed-up air), eddies (swirling air) and strong winds. Wind wears away land in three ways:
- Deflation: lifting and blowing away dust and fine particles.
- Abrasion: blown sand scouring rock, most strongly within 1–2 m of the ground.
- Impact: sand blasting against rock surfaces.
Wind also carries sand and drops it as dunes. But running water matters in deserts too. Sheet floods (broad, shallow flows) after rare heavy rain do much of the general erosion.
Example
In the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, wind builds crescent-shaped barchan dunes near Jaisalmer.
Don't confuse with
- Sheet flood: this is erosion by running water after torrential rain, not by wind. Both shape deserts.
Related concepts
- Deflation
- Wind abrasion
- Sheet flood
- Erg, reg and hamada
- Pediment
- Parallel retreat of slopes
- Pediplain
- Inselberg
- Playa
- Deflation hollow