Linear dunes dominate the remainder of the sand areas.
The Great Sandy Desert is a 360 000-km 2 expanse in northwestern Australia. As evident in this Plate, much of the desert consists of semifixed linear dunes. Because of the stability of the dunes and the suggestion of a developing soil profile created by the vegetation, some investigators refer to these dunes as sand ridges. The vegetation in Figure E-17.3 changes between the slipfaces of the dunes and the interdunal corridor, which is possibly due to a composition change between the dunes and the interdunal areas. As seen in these figures and on the Plate, the crests of the dunes are generally free of vegetation.