40 Aeolian Systems in Time and Space
This session explores research focused on all aspects of aeolian processes and landforms, including dunes, dust, and loess in modern and ancient aeolian systems on Earth and other planets.
Sunday, 19 October 2025
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, 212AB
A Relic Pleistocene Carolina Erg? LiDAR Mapping Reveals Extensive Eolian Landforms in Scotland, Hoke and Robeson Counties, North Carolina
Paper number: 40-7
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 3:05 PM – 3:20 PM
Authors
Abstract
Modern LiDAR point cloud data in south-central North Carolina illuminates widespread Pleistocene eolian landforms draped over the Late Cretaceous clastic substrate. Barchan, longitudinal and parabolic dunes, in addition to widespread sheet/cover sands, indicate remnants of a fossil inland desert which formed during cold, dry Pleistocene low-stand glacial periods. This erg includes the sandy upper Atlantic coastal plain, the Pinehurst Formation and the area informally referred to as the Carolina Sandhills. Dune orientation vector analysis and landform mapping suggest two separate wind regimes. An earlier episode of winds from the southeast is evidenced by ubiquitous barchan dunes on the upper Atlantic Coastal Plain. In the elliptical wind shadow leeward of each of these barchans, fine-grained wind-borne sediments accumulated, thereby initiating Carolina Bay formation. A later phase of wind from the west-southwest is indicated by parabolic and longitudinal dunes, which prograde over the older barchan dunes, Carolina Bays, and sheet sands. These commonly occur along the forefront of the Sandhills uplands (the Orangeburg Scarp) and along the banks of the creeks and east margins of Carolina Bays. The proposed mechanism for this change in wind direction is climatic change associated with the onset of warmer interglacial periods. A regional overview, LiDAR examples of the desert landforms and mapping results will be presented.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6
doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-411916
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