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Shaped by the wind

Many crescent shaped depressions can be spotted all over the low right part of the image. These hollows are apparently carved into the sand by wind and are called blowouts. A blowout is a saucer or trough-shaped depression created by wind erosion on a preexisting sand deposit and formed together with an adjoining sand accumulation called depositional lobe or blowout dune. The process of creating the blowout is rather simple: The wind transports the sand and erodes the smooth surface. When it hits a buried object, like for example a rock or just a more resistant portion of the sediment, the wind with the sand is forced around the object, creating an eddy at the face of the object. The wind is then forced downward, around and then up, carving out a hollow while lifting the sand from the base of the obstacle and depositing it behind it.