Wind abrasion
Also called: Sandblasting · Topic: Landforms and their Evolution: Rivers, Groundwater, Glaciers, Waves and Wind · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Landforms and their Evolution"
Meaning
Wind abrasion is the wearing down of rock by sand and silt that the wind carries. The sand works like sandpaper against the rock. It is strongest within 1–2 m of the ground, because the heaviest grains stay low. Impact works alongside it: the sheer force of blown sand hitting rock, like sand-blasting. Together they shape rocks into forms such as mushroom rocks and yardangs.
Example
In the Sahara, at the White Desert near Farafra in western Egypt, blown sand has worn away the lower parts of rocks. This has left mushroom-shaped rocks with thin stalks.
Don't confuse with
- Deflation: wind lifting and carrying away loose dust and fine particles. Deflation removes loose material and digs out hollows. Abrasion scrapes solid rock.
Related concepts
- Aeolian processes
- Deflation
- Sheet flood
- Erg, reg and hamada
- Pediment
- Parallel retreat of slopes
- Pediplain
- Inselberg
- Playa
- Deflation hollow