page_title: Dune
section_title: North America
hierarchical_section_title: Dune / Examples / North America
caption_attribution_description: English: West main street and transition zone (back dunes), Guadalupe Dunes County Park on the right (also called Rancho Guadalupe Dunes).
context_page_description: A dune is a landform, and is a large mass of wind-blown sand. Dunes are most common in deserted environments, such as the Sahara, and also near beaches. An area with dunes is called a dune system. In physical geography, a dune is a hill of loose sand built by aeolian processes or the flow of water. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, formed by interaction with the flow of air or water. Dunes can be natural, but also man-made. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the stoss side, where the sand is pushed up the dune, and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee side. The valley or trough between dunes is called a slack.
  An erg or sand sea is a large broad, flat area covered with wind-swept sand and/or dunes with little or no vegetation. Smaller areas are called dune fields.
  Dunes occur in some deserts, inland and along some coasts. Some coastal areas have one or more sets of dunes running parallel to the shoreline directly inland from the beach. In most cases, the dunes are important in protecting the land against potential ravages by storm waves from the sea.
context_section_description: Victoria Island Sand Dunes,160 km North West of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada. Approximately 600 square kilometers, the largest in Canada, third largest in North America and the largest in the Arctic. There are two lakes with direct access to the Dunes from float planes.
  Herring Cove, Race Point and The Province Lands bicycle path in Provincetown, Massachusetts as part of the US National Park Service of the Cape Cod National Seashore.
  Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, the northernmost sand dunes in the world, Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska
  The Athabasca Sand Dunes, located in the Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park, Saskatchewan.
  The Cadiz Dunes in the Mojave Trails National Monument in California.
  The Kelso Dunes in the Mojave Desert of California.
  Eureka Valley Sand Dunes and Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park, California.
  Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado.
  White Sands National Park, New Mexico.
  Little Sahara Recreation Area, Utah.
  Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan, on the east shore of Lake Michigan.
  Indiana Dunes National Park, Indiana, on the south shore of Lake Michigan.
  Warren Dunes State Park, Michigan, on the east shore of Lake Michigan.
  Grand Sable Dunes, in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan.
  Samalayuca Dunes, in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico
  Algodones Dunes near Brawley, California.
  Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes, on the central coast of California.
  Monahans Sandhills State Park near Odessa, Texas.
  Beaver Dunes State Park near Beaver, Oklahoma.
  The Killpecker sand dunes of the Red Desert in southwestern Wyoming.
  Jockey's Ridge State Park – on the Outer Banks, North Carolina.
  The Great Dune found in Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes, Delaware.
  Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area near Florence, Oregon, on the Pacific Coast.
  Bruneau Dunes State Park – Owyhee Desert, Idaho
  Hoffmaster State Park – Muskegon, Michigan
  Silver Lake State Park — a sand dunes that allows off-road vehicle use located in Mears, Michigan.
caption: Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes
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