资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

We analyze major landforms of the Lut Desert in Iran to provide a comprehensive source-to-sink picture of aeolian systems on time scales from decades to millions of years. We map the modern sandflows, along which we evaluate the volume and chronology associated with the excavation of mega-yardangs upwind and the formation of giant dunes downwind. Sediment discharges deduced from long-term erosion and deposition are of the same order of magnitude (10⁵ to 10⁶ m³ yr⁻¹) as short and medium-term sand discharges derived from wind data and dune morphodynamics. At the scale of the internal aeolian sediment-routing system of the Lut, we establish an overall sediment budget constrained by the joint development of the erosional and depositional landforms. Our findings thus quantify the geomorphic controls of aeolian processes on arid landscapes at multiple length and time scales, while providing information on mass exchanges between continents and atmosphere.