Soil erosion on a sub-tropical coastal dune complex,Transkei, Southern Africa

A fossil dune complex on the east coast of southern Africa is presently undergoing extensive accelerated erosion, with concomitant dune reactivation and degradation, unconfined erosion (sheetwash and wind deflation) and extensive development of V-shaped, ravine-type gully forms on hillslopes composed of thick sequences of Quaternary (Berea Formation?) dune sands. The sands comprise a thick, reddened, ferralitic sand carapace overlying white, poorly cemented quartzitic sands. Soil erosion has resulted from degradation of the red dune sand cover. Despite the cohesionless nature of the host materials, gully forms developed on dune sands are typologically similar to those developed in regolith or soft bedrock. This demonstrates that gully forms are influenced by the degree of homogeneity, rather than the absolute strength, of the host material subject to erosion. Factors which have contributed to erosion are discussed.