The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes

by Ralph Alger Bagnold

An expert treatise on the origin and evolution of dunes, this classic work was used by NASA in studying sand dunes on Mars and is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students. The first book to deal exclusively with the behavior of blown sand and related land forms, its accessible style makes it an enduring reference more than half a century after its initial publication.
The author studied the sands of North Africa for many years before World War II and is recognized as a leading authority on the subject. His three-part treatment begins with his wind-tunnel experiments, which he conducted to investigate the mechanism of sand transport. First, an account of the observed movement of the individual grains, followed by a chapter on the ground wind and its dependence on the type of surface over which it blows, form a comprehensive view of the interaction between wind and sand. Part Two considers small-scale surface phenomena, such as ripples and ridges, and the closely related subject of size-grading the grains.
The third part uses the foregoing results to explain the growth and movement of dunes in general, and the peculiar characteristics of the two main dune types. A method of determining the internal structure of accumulated sand illuminates both the sand's carrying power for motor transport and its water-retention potential. A final chapter, derived from firsthand knowledge, examines the intriguing subject of "singing sand."

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1971

About the author

Brigadier Ralph Alger Bagnold, FRS[1] OBE, (3 April 1896 – 28 May 1990) was the founder and first commander of the British Army's Long Range Desert Group during World War II. He is also generally considered to have been a pioneer of desert exploration, an acclaim earned for his activities during the 1930s. These included the first recorded east-west crossing of the Libyan Desert (1932). Bagnold was also a veteran of World War I. He laid the foundations for the research on sand transport by wind in his influential book The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes (first published 1941; reprinted by Dover in 2005), which is still a main reference in the field. It has, for instance, been used by NASA in studying sand dunes on Mars.

Reviews

[Ooi Ghee Leng · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is astounding when one stops to think of how insightful a pioneering work as that put forth by Bagnold in a concentrated volume seems to not falter in strength, but rather builds up to such a climax in the last chapter of "The Singing Sands". Also, the passage of time has not buried this work; time has made it into something entirely new, as if the book can metamorphize like natural rock. The physics of granular materials has only started to catch the attentions of physicists in the past decade after centuries of ignorance, albeit its apparent importance in a lot of industries. Bagnold only probes the physics of blown sand and desert dunes, but in that process, he opens up a horizon of potential projections of the reported observed phenomena in other fields like geomorphology, landslide physics, and etc.

This is how a scholarly book should be written. Mathematical and yet lucid as insights are the founding structures from one explained equation and phenomenon to the other. Bagnold set an excellent academic example which we scientists, who are still striving hard to decipher the science behind granular materials, shall adhere to.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful example of science writing. Although it is loaded with physics and equations that I barely understand I thoroughly enjoyed his clear descriptions of the questions he set out to answer and the methods he used to find these answers. This is the foundational work of the study of the movement by wind of sand and is still used today in college level courses.

[Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly this book was a bit *dry*. That's not just a devastatingly funny pun; it is actually the truth. There is much of interest here, but this is something more akin to a literature review a new graduate student would read than a popularization for a general audience. The good thing about this is that you have a chance to understand in greater detail than you would get from a general audience pop sci book written today that is allergic to equations and graphs. However, as stated, some aspects were difficult even for me to take an interest in.

I most appreciated the information about the mechanisms of sand movement, saltation and creep. I have heard of saltation, but I realize now that I previously misunderstood the details of the mechanism. I also found the explanation of the formation and migration of barchan dunes interesting. It is interesting to see how much can be explained from a few simple premises.

[Ishan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a classic. If you are willing to labor through the scientific details, you'll be entertained by the surprising physics of sand behavior and granular materials. Also, there is a treat for the readers in the last chapter's discussion of 'singing sand'.