We tend to think of desert landscapes as endless swathes of sandy dunes. Popular films reinforce this stereotype. In reality only about 20% of the entire Sahara is covered in wind-blown sand, and much of this is gently undulating sand sheets rather than dunes.Nearly 40% of the continent of Australia is covered in wind-blown sand and sporadic areas of linear dunes, but these sand plains and dunes are mostly vegetated and stable.
Far more common than desert dunes are vast gravel plains, known in Arabic as serir, which consist of fine alluvial sediments with a veneer of fine gravel. In Australia, these gravelcapped alluvial plains are called gibber plains, from the Aboriginal word for stone or boulder. They are also common in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and northern China. Extensive sandstone plateaux (or hamada in Arabic) are another common desert landform. They are called stony tablelands in Australia.
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