Dr. Andrew Gunn, a scientist at Monash University, has produced a complete digital map of Earth’s wind-blown sand dunes.
Distribution of Earth’s wind-blown sand dunes. Image credit: Andrew Gunn, doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-75466-y.
“Sand dunes can serve as natural archives of climate and geological history,” said Dr. Gunn, an author of a paper published in the journal Nature Communications.
“Having a consistent, worldwide map allows us to better understand how wind-shaped landscapes evolve across our planet today, offering a clearer benchmark when analyzing similar features in the rock record or on planets like Mars.”
In the study, Dr. Gunn manually mapped dune presence across 0.1-degree grid squares worldwide using satellite imagery and elevation data, identifying dunes on roughly 7.8% of Earth’s surface across every continent.
He found that dune formation can’t be explained by aridity or wind strength alone.
Instead, dunes are most common where sand is actively accumulating rather than eroding away.
The researcher demonstrated this clearly in Africa, where parts of the Sahara have plenty of arid terrain and strong winds, yet no dunes, because sand is being transported away faster than it arrives.
He also explored how the shape of crescent-shaped ‘barchan’ dunes — long used to infer wind direction on Earth, Mars, and even in the ancient rock record — can be skewed by the type of sediment involved.
The new global dataset should help refine predictions of desertification under climate change and improve interpretations of aeolian landscapes on other planets.
“As global climate patterns shift, this map gives us a baseline to track how wind systems and drylands are changing in real time,” Dr. Gunn said.
“Beyond looking backward at Earth’s history, it gives climate modelers a crucial tool to predict how desertification and wind-driven erosion might reshape communities in the decades ahead.”
A. Gunn. 2026. The distribution of Earth’s wind-blown sand dunes. Nat Commun 17, 8468; doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-75466-y