The abundance of sand and scarcity of land plants within deserts and along wave-dominated beaches allows the wind to build dunes. Along many mid-latitude coasts, much of the material available for transport is composed of calcium carbonate minerals – calcite and aragonite. Although the term eolianite is sometimes used by geologists for “all consolidated sedimentary rocks that were deposited by the wind” (Sayles, 1931), it has also been used for carbonate-rich coastal dunes of Quaternary age. Here the term is used for eolian deposits of any age in which carbonate grains constitute greater than 50% of all detrital grains (carbonate eolianite of Abegg et al., 2001).
Most Quaternary carbonate eolianites appear to have been deposited during interglacial episodes within a high sea-level setting. Abundant calcareous skeletal material was generated in the warm, clear, shallow water that covered broad coastal platforms, and dune ridges were built by onshore winds. In some areas, however, it has...
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Loope, D.B. (2009). Eolianite. In: Gornitz, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4411-3_82
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