Ancient and modern cold‐climate aeolian sand deposition: A review

Abstract

Although partly active aeolian sand sheets and dunes cover large areas in the zones of (disjcontinuous permafrost, little precise information is available about the influence of cold-climate conditions on modern aeolian processes. This means that palaeoenvironmental reconstructions in the stabilised, mainly Late Pleistocene dune fields and cover sand regions in the 'sand belts' of the European Lowlands and the Northern Great Plains of the USA and Canada, are necessarily still based on ancient evidence. Cold-climate wind deposits are typically derived from areas of abundant sediment supply like unvegetated flood plains, glacial outwash plains, till plains and lake shores. The common parabolic and transverse dune forms resemble those observed in temperate regions.Although a variety of periglacial features has been identified in Late Pleistocene dune and cover sands none of them indicate that permafrost is crucial to aeolian activity. Specific structures in aeolian strata permit tentative interpretation of the moisture content of depositional sand surfaces, the nature of annual sedimentation cycles and the processes by which strata were deposited and/or contorted. But surprisingly little is known about the role of vegetation in the process of sand accumulation. Dunes are most informative with respect to reconstructions of past wind regimes, which offer important data for verification of palaeoclimatic simulations.

Syngenetic sand veins and anti‐syngenetic sand wedges, Tuktoyaktuk Coastlands, western Arctic Canada

“…Cold-climate sand sheets, especially in central and northwest Europe, have provided valuable palaeoenvironmental information about aeolian, cryogenic and fluvial processes during the Late Quaternary (Koster, 1988(Koster, , 1995(Koster, , 2005. This paper discusses whether sedimentary structures within sand sheets from western Arctic Canada record permafrost conditions and, therefore, palaeoclimate, during sand-sheet formation.…”

The chronostratigraphy of Late Pleistocene glacial and periglacial aeolian activity in the Tuktoyaktuk Coastlands, NWT, Canada

“…Kocurek and Nielson, 1986;Koster, 1988;Schwan, 1988;Lea, 1990). The sand sheets are characteristized by horizontal to gently dipping stratification, and often contain syngenetic sand wedges that have grown vertically with aggradation of the sand (Murton 1,in prep.).…”

Discovery and significance of Quaternary aqueously deposited aeolian sandstones in the Sanhu area, Qaidam Basin, China

“…Regional aeolian sediments are controlled by dynamic interactions between glacial, icemargin fluvial, aeolian and volcaniclastic processes under the influence of a distinctive climatic regime (Mountney and Russell 2004). Aeolian landforms serve as a long-term integrator of the effects of the strongest wind regimes in a region (Koster 1988). According to the research results, it is speculated that there are mainly two reasons for the formation of aqueously deposited aeolian sandstones in the Quaternary.…”