Beschreibung
Dunes grow, change their shape and fade away. This book
demonstrates that the evolution of eolian sand and dunes is
under control of climatic change, permafrost, vegetational
growth, soil formation and human interference. The European
sand belt spreads from the Netherlands through Germany and
Poland into Russia as inland dune fields up to a hight of
several meters as well as large carpets of thin eolian sand,
the so-called coversand. This book illuminates the origin of
this enormous sand masses from their first traces during the
Saalian glaciation through the Weichselian glaciation up to
present times. Periods of strong eolian activity change with
periods of dune stability. The interior of the dunes
exhibits striking interruptions of eolian activity by a
large variety of fossil soils. The individual character of
these soils allows to interprete the eolian sand movements
period by period through the history of the last 150.000
years. All in all the book offers details of modern research
on dune sand as well as comprehensive chapters of the recent
state of knowledge on dune formation.
