Médanos (geology)

In South America, the word médanos refers to dunes of continental origin, distinguished from dunas, the term used for dunes that form along the coast. Médanos can be vegetated or bare of plants: the médanos of La Pampa Province in Argentina are mostly vegetated with occasional blowouts, while those of Médanos de Coro National Park in Venezuela are mostly unvegetated. A nineteenth century account by the naturalist Johann Jakob von Tschudi described unvegetated médanos in Peru as crescent shaped sand hillocks ten to twenty feet high, with a steep face on one side and a gentler sloping back, capable of migrating across a plain when driven by strong winds.