The study of dunes has been developing briskly, as new skills are focused onto it, but there have been few syntheses.
Dunes is the first book to cover the whole field. Even for books that cover parts of the field, none has been published for over a decade.
Dunes summarises what is and what is not known about the shapes, sizes, patterns, distribution, history and care of wind-blown dunes. It covers terrestrial dunes and those elsewhere in the Solar System, and underpins these fields with chapters on winds, wind-blown sand, ripples, and the process of sand movement. The book incorporates the findings of mathematical models; improved instrumentation for the measurement of sand movement in the field and in the wind tunnel; the analysis of remotely-sensed images; dating techniques, especially those dependent on thermoluminescence; even some stratigraphy and pedology.