Sand and wind

Transcript of Sand and wind video

Sand naturally gets transported by wind. Stronger winds can have a big impact on the rate of transportation of sand. Wind also forms the shape of dunes along and behind a beach.

Windblown sand can be transported and deposited some distance. Finer sand particles are more likely to travel a greater distance under the influence of wind.

This garden blower is being used to demonstrate loose sand being transported by wind.

Contrast this to sand being effected by wind near this spinifex grass.

Plants in the primary dune help hold and trap sand. Spinifex grass roots hold sand and so will their runners once they grow fibrous roots. The plant interrupts the wind down low. Where there are more plants, more sand is deposited.

Sea rocket and sea daisy forms clumps. Sand will be held by them and eroded from around them, leaving bumps on the foredune. These bumps reduce the action of wind around the plant and sand can be deposited behind the plant.

Sea weed and sticks on a beach help reduce the transportation of sand by wind.

Students constructed and tested a model of a managed dune system. You can see the sand being deposited near the mesh. Deposited sand repairs and builds sand dunes.

The mesh fences at Wanda Beach and North Cronulla Beach are working to repair and build the dune.

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