Mass‐wasting of ancient aeolian dunes and sand fluidization during a period of global warming and inferred brief high precipitation: the Hopeman Sandstone (late Permian), Scotland

Large‐scale deformation structures in late Permian aeolian dune sands are associated with sand fluidization and injection. Exceptional precipitation and flooding of the desert margin are believed to have caused mass‐wasting by gravitational collapse and sliding of water‐saturated dunes, which loaded down‐dip strata, thus generating overpressure and triggering sand injection. This short‐lived but heavy precipitation seems to have been associated with a climatic change from arid Rotliegend dune deposition to widespread Zechstein marine conditions within the greater North Sea area, probably just before or coinciding with deposition of the rapidly expanding marine Kupferschiefer.