Latest Pleistocene and Holocene dune construction at the north‐eastern edge of the Rub Al Khali, United Arab Emirates

Goudie, Andrew; Colls, Alison; Stokes, Stephen; Parker, Adrian; White, Kevin; Al-Farraj, Asma

doi:10.1046/j.1365-3091.2000.00336.x

Cited by 96 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Across much of the UAE, generally unimodal north-westerly Shamal wind regimes (Barth, 2001) favour barchan or transverse dune forms. As these dunes migrate, each phase of dune activation may remove evidence of earlier forms, particularly where the sediment supply is limited by high groundwater and sea levels, and the rate of deflation of sand from older deposits is low (Goudie et al, 2000). This can lead to discontinuous sediment records.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing a framework of Quaternary dune accumulation in the northern Rub' al-Khali, Arabia

Farrant

Duller

Parker

et al. 2015

Quaternary International

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Located at the crossroads between Africa and Eurasia, Arabia occupies a pivotal position for human migration and dispersal during the Late Pleistocene. Deducing the timing of humid and arid phases is critical to understanding when the Rub' al-Khali desert acted as a barrier to human movement and settlement. Recent geological mapping in the northern part of the Rub' al-Khali has enabled the Quaternary history of the region to be put into a regional stratigraphical framework. In addition to the active dunes, two significant palaeodune sequences have been identified. Dating of key sections has enabled a chronology of dune accretion and stabilisation to be determined. In addition, previously published optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates have been put in their proper stratigraphical context, from which a record of Late Pleistocene dune activity can be constructed. The results indicate the record of dune activity in the northern Rub' al-Khali is preservation limited and is synchronous with humid events driven by the incursion of the Indian Ocean monsoon.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing a framework of Quaternary dune accumulation in the northern Rub' al-Khali, Arabia

Farrant

Duller

Parker

et al. 2015

Quaternary International

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“…The advent of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating (see review in Singhvi and Porat, 2008) has revolutionized paleoclimatic studies of dunes, as the only requirement is the presence of quartz, which is rarely an issue with aeolian sand. Recent studies of the dunefields in the Sahara, the SinaieNegev erg, and the Arabian Peninsula, with good OSL geochronology, have yielded important paleoclimatic information in Mauritania (Lancaster et al, 2002), Egypt and Sudan (Bubenzer et al, 2007), Israel (Roskin et al, 2011a(Roskin et al, , 2011b and Arabia (Goudie et al, 2000;Preusser et al, 2002Preusser et al, , 2005Atkinson et al, 2011Atkinson et al, , 2012, as well as regional syntheses (Swezy, 2001;Glennie and Singhvi, 2002;Lancaster, 2007Lancaster, , 2008Singhvi and Porat, 2008). One conclusion common to these studies is that dunes over a wide region were very active during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), but dune activity diminished at the close of the Last Glacial period, a concept articulated earlier by Sarnthein (1978).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin of the Sinai–Negev erg, Egypt and Israel: mineralogical and geochemical evidence for the importance of the Nile and sea level history

Muhs

Roskin

Tsoar

et al. 2013

Quaternary Science Reviews

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"Origin of the Sinai-Negev erg, Egypt and Israel: mineralogical and geochemical evidence for the importance of the Nile and sea level history" (2013 Overall, the mineralogical data suggest that the dunes are derived dominantly from the Nile Delta, with Sinai wadi sands being a minor contributor. Geochemical data that proxy for both the light mineral fraction (SiO 2 /10eAl 2 O 3 þ Na 2 O þ K 2 OeCaO) and heavy mineral fraction (Fe 2 O 3 eMgOeTiO 2 ) also indicate a dominant Nile Delta source for the dunes. Thus, we report here the first empirical evidence that the SinaieNegev dunes are derived dominantly from the Nile Delta. Linkage of the SinaieNegev erg to the Nile Delta as a source is consistent with the distribution of OSL ages of Negev dunes in recent studies. Stratigraphic studies show that during the Last Glacial period, when dune incursions in the SinaieNegev erg began, what is now the Nile Delta area was characterized by a broad, sandy, minimally vegetated plain, with seasonally dry anastomosing channels. Such conditions were ideal for providing a ready source of sand for aeolian transport under what were probably much stronger glacial-age winds.With the post-glacial rise in sea level, the Nile River began to aggrade. Post-glacial sedimentation has been dominated by fine-grained silts and clays. Thus, sea level, along with favorable climatic conditions, emerges as a major influence on the timing of dune activity in the SinaieNegev erg, through its control on the supply of sand from the Nile Delta. The mineralogy of the SinaieNegev dunes is also consistent with a proposed hypothesis that these sediments are an important source of loess in Israel.Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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“…Those dunes in the north and east within about 100 km of the Arabian Gulf are much more calcareous, but the carbonates remain at secondary amounts, either as dolomite or calcite [18]. Even in the extreme northeast of the desert, the sediment is still quartzitic, with distinct deeper reddish shades.…”

Section: Mineralogical Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Different formations in the Zagros confirm the likely probability of that range being the chief source of Empty Quarter sediment. Most scientists place the creation of the sand seas in the Pleistocene -it's just a matter of when in the epoch, variations ranging in the hundreds-of-thousands of years [18]. The latter authors placed the sands of the extreme northeast of the desert in the latest Pleistocene and earliest Holocene and said that it happened during a single, rapid accretionary phase.…”

Section: Possible Provenancementioning

confidence: 99%

Mineralogy, geochemistry and possible provenance of desert sand dunes from western Rub' al Khali area, southeastern Saudi Arabia

Moufti

2013

International Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences

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The Rub' al Khali desert dune sands are major constitutes of the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. The investigated dunes in the present work are located in its western extreme where they display three major forms (seif, sigmoidal and barchan) with distinct variations in size and unique homogeneity of mineral composition. The Rub' al Khali sand dunes in its western part are placed in the craton interior and based on the contents of Quartz-FeldsparsLithic fragments, they are originating from a recycled orogen in which intrusive, sedimentary and partly metamorphosed sources have contributed to the composition of the sands. The presence of minerals like clay minerals and amphiboles in the bulk composition of the dune sands supports the influence of granitic, granodioritic and schistose sources. They are all fine sand, moderately well sorted, nearly symmetrical to fine skewed and mostly mesokurtic. The heavy mineral fractions are dominated by a variety of amphiboles (winchite-riebeckite-richterite-arfvedsonite) in addition to cordierite. The geochemistry of the Rub' al Khali dune sands show that the dune sands are associated with acid, felsic plutonic detritus linked to an active continental margin. Correlations between Fe 2 O 3 , SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , TiO 2 , MgO, and other oxides in the dune sands indicate the presence of ilmenite, magnetite and zircon in the samples. With respect to the provenance, there are two possibilities which are the Zagros Mountains in Iran and the Sahara Desert in North Africa. Orientation of linear dunes in the Rub' al Khali area is controlled by the dominant shamal (north) wind.

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Latest Pleistocene and Holocene dune construction at the north‐eastern edge of the Rub Al Khali, United Arab Emirates

Cited by 96 publications

References 29 publications

Developing a framework of Quaternary dune accumulation in the northern Rub' al-Khali, Arabia

Developing a framework of Quaternary dune accumulation in the northern Rub' al-Khali, Arabia

Origin of the Sinai–Negev erg, Egypt and Israel: mineralogical and geochemical evidence for the importance of the Nile and sea level history

Mineralogy, geochemistry and possible provenance of desert sand dunes from western Rub' al Khali area, southeastern Saudi Arabia

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