A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
975 entries
star dune
A pyramidal sand dune with three or more radiating arms, formed where winds blow from multiple directions. Star dunes are the tallest dune type — some in the Sahara exceed 1,500 feet — and unlike barchans and seif dunes, they do not migrate. They grow in place, accumulating sand from every direction, their arms extending and retreating with the shifting winds. From the air, their shape is unmistakable: a central peak with ridges reaching outward like the points of a star.
Etymology
Star from Old English steorra, from Proto-Germanic sterrōn, from a Proto-Indo-European root ster- (star). Dune from Old French dune, from Middle Dutch dūne, from Proto-Germanic dūnaz — related to down in the sense of open, rolling upland.