Pseudo-feathery dunes in the Kumtagh desert reclassified as linear dunes and zibars

Dunes with apparent feathery patterns are common in the harsh and inaccessible Kumtagh desert in China. A recent paper by Dong et al. [Dong, Z., Qu, J., Wang, X., Qian, G., Luo, W., Wei, Z., 2008. Pseudo-feathery dunes in the Kumtagh desert. Geomorphology 100, 328–334] argued that the dunes are pseudo-feathery dunes with the different forms (linear versus marginal feather vanes) being related to grain composition differences. Field studies in the region and sedimentological analyses revealed that the dune ‘feathers’ are created by dunes of different heights, rather than by differences in material composition. The dunes are, in fact, linear dunes and zibars corresponding with the rachises and vanes, respectively, and appearing as feathery patterns in aerial photographs and satellite images.