EOLIAN LANDFORMS ON THE TERRACES - THE EFFECT OF DEFLATION OF THEIR SLOPES

Abstract

Winter upwind slopes of the river terraces were subjected to deflation and served as the source of the sand accumulation on the surface of the terrace. The sand grains were weakened due to frost weathering which took place there; they were crushed then in the intensive wind stream over the slope and disintegrated to loess particles, which were accumulated beyond the sand massive. The process has cyclic character and needed annual flood undercutting that forbade the overgrowing of the slope. On the long-term scale this process represented the geomorphological regime of slope denudation under the wind action.