Preliminary studies on the large-scale geomorphic patterns of the complex longitudinal sand ridge zone in the Taklimakan Desert

Through analysis of satellite images from Google Earth, this article expounds the characteristics of large-scale geomorphic patterns of the complex longitudinal sand ridge zone in the Taklimakan Desert, and reduces the large-scale geomorphic patterns to six types: parallel pattern, “日” character-shaped and “乡” character-shaped pattern, comb-shaped pattern, fork-shaped pattern, toe-shaped pattern and miscellaneous pattern. And according to the large-scale geomorphic pattern type (or composition of pattern types) as well as some other factors, the article divides the complex longitudinal sand ridge zone into 55 subzones. Lastly, aiming at the genetic problems of the large-scale geomorphic patterns, the article suggests three connective types of the sand ridges in the complex longitudinal sand ridge zone, i.e., connecting or intersecting after natural elongation, connecting in a narrow place and connecting with the aid of intermediary.