Aeolian

Wind transported materials constitute this category. This can be further divided into dunes or loess. Dunes are found in thr& types of situations. Fitly, these may occur along the shores of water bodies like seas and lakes as a result of water currents eroding the land and depositing the resultant sand particles on the strand in bays and the wind moving the material back to the land. Secondly, dunes formed along the river valleys, where flood waters deposit sand on the flood plain which when dry is blown by the wind. In the third case, in dry regions, the weathering of sandstone and other rocks may produce sand that is easily blown away because of sparse vegetation. One interesting thing about dune sand is that it is composed of particles of uniform size and composition. The finer particles are blown further, whereas the heavier ones such as gravel remains at the same place. Dune soils are of not much agricultural value.

Loess is a deposit of very fine unconsolidated and unstratified particles which have been picked up and transported some distance by wind and, therefore, is more fine-textured than dune soil. In some places, these deposits may attain a thickness of upto 70 metres. Sometimes loess is derived partly from volcanic ash also.