If the wind were a homogeneous stream of air blowing from one constant direction, long straight dune ridges oriented at right angles to the wind would result. Most dunes, however, are neither straight nor at right angles to the wind, and this indicates that the winds are not a uniform stream or that they blow from different directions. The fairly uniform geometric shapes of several basic types of dunes can be recognized from desert to desert on Earth, and some of the same types have been identified on Mars as well.

Barchan dunes are common to both the Earth and Mars. These small crescent-shaped sand bodies occur in areas where the regional wind blows consistently from one direction. Their crescentic shape must be due to spatial variations in wind velocity, and the regular repetition of dune shapes and spacings when they are close together indicate that the variations in the wind are also regular. This is a property common to all bed forms. It is thought that the flow of a fluid arranges itself in long spiral vortices parallel to the direction of flow, which, with zones of faster and slower velocities arranged transverse to the flow, gives a regular sinuous pattern on the bed.

Where there is a continuous sand cover, a varied dune pattern results from the pattern of flow. The main forms are transverse ridges composed of alternating crescentic elements, like barchans, facing downwind, and other crescentic elements facing upwind. These enclose between them a regular pattern of small hollows. Superimposed on this are small straight ridges parallel with the flow. These elements form a network pattern that is extremely common in the great sand seas. The dunes commonly reach a height of nearly 200 metres and are spaced hundreds of metres to more than two kilometres apart.

One of the important features of sandy terrains is that their forms occur in a number of distinct sizes. Large features are covered with smaller ones, and the smaller ones are covered with ripples. In most of the larger sand seas there is usually a network pattern of very large dunes known as compound dunes, mega-dunes, or draa. These are sometimes arranged parallel to the apparent flow, in long ridges, and occasionally transverse to it in great sand waves. The compound dunes are usually covered with a smaller, secondary dune pattern, and the smaller dunes with ordinary sand ripples in most cases. Within each of the size groups of the hierarchy (ripples, dunes, or compound dunes) there are variations in size depending on the grain size of the sand and wind velocity; for example, whereas most ripples are spaced only a few centimetres apart, “mega-ripples,” built in very coarse sand, are spaced almost as far apart as small dunes; and whereas most dunes are about 100 metres apart, the low undulations of coarse sand on sand sheets are up to 500 metres apart. The relation between sand grain size and the shape of a dune is not, however, one of simple cause and effect, for the relation is not constant in all dunes of a given shape or in all localities.

Some dune forms can be related to variations in the overall wind direction, usually on a seasonal cycle. In some areas, winds from opposed directions blow during different seasons, so that “reversing dunes” are formed, in which the slip faces face first in one direction and then in the other. Distinct dunes are formed around topographic obstructions and in sheltered zones on the lee of small hills into which the sand migrates. If the wind meets a high scarp or large hill massif, a so-called echo dune is deposited on the upwind side separated from the scarp by a rolling eddy of air that keeps a corridor free of sand. Many oases and routeways are found in this kind of corridor. Echo dunes are among the largest dunes in the desert, sometimes reaching a height of more than 400 metres.

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Fixed dunes in semiarid regions

Dunes also form around plants in the desert where groundwater is available for vegetation. The usual dune forms that occur in such instances are isolated mounds around individual plants. These forms are known as coppice dunes, or nebkha. Further, in many regions that are now subhumid or humid, one finds areas of older dunes fixed by vegetation, providing undeniable evidence that these regions were once more arid than they are today. On the North American high plains, in Hungary, and in Mongolia, the fixed sands have a cover of rich grassland. In Poland they are covered with coniferous forests. The dune patterns on these fixed sands bear a close resemblance to those in active sand seas, except that their forms are rounded and subdued.