A nabkha, nebkha or nebka is a type of sand dune. Other terms used include coppice dune and dune hummock or hummocky dune, but these more accurately refer to similar, but different, sand dune types.[1] Authors have also used the terms phytogenic hillock,[2] bush-mound, shrub-coppice dune, knob dune, dune tumulus, rebdou, nebbe, and takouit.[3]
In simplest terms, a nabkha is a sand dune that forms around vegetation.[1][2] It is an aeolian landform, a structure built and shaped by the action of wind.[3]
Nabkhas are common and occur in many regions. Well known nabkha fields occur in the Lut Desert of Iran, Arabian Desert of Kuwait,[2] the Hotan River Basin in Xinjiang, China,[4] and New Mexico in the United States and adjacent Chihuahua in Mexico.[1]
- ^ a b c Langford, R. P. (2000). Nabkha (coppice dune) fields of south-central New Mexico, USA. Archived 2014-02-21 at the Wayback Machine Journal of Arid Environments 46(1) 25-41.
- ^ a b c El-Sheikh, M. A., et al. (2010). Vegetation ecology of phytogenic hillocks (nabkhas) in coastal habitats of Jal Az-Zor National Park, Kuwait: Role of patches and edaphic factors. Flora 205(12) 832-40.
- ^ a b Khalaf, F. I., et al. (1995). Sedimentological and morphological characteristics of some nabkha deposits in the northern coastal plain of Kuwait, Arabia. Archived 2014-02-21 at the Wayback Machine Journal of Arid Environments 29(3) 267-92.
- ^ Wu, S., et al. (2008). The morphological characteristics and growth mode of nabkha in the basin of Hotan River, Xinjiang. Geographical Research 27(2) 314-22.