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A ventifact (also wind-faceted stone, windkanter [1]) is a rock that has been abraded, pitted, etched, grooved, or polished by wind-driven sand or ice crystals. [2] The word “Ventifact” is derived from the Latin word “Ventus” meaning ‘ wind ’.
Ventifact at Ventifact Ridge. Ventifact Ridge is a part of a basaltic lava flow. The rocks on its exposed and barren ridge are famous for being shaped by wind erosion and are called ventifacts. Sharp edges of ventifacts called Kanters are formed when two or more facets (planar surfaces) intersect. Open grooves in the ventifacts are called flutes.
A dreikanter from the Wind River Basin, Wyoming, USA. Property of Western Washington University. Photo by AJ Wakefield, 2012. A dreikanter is a type of ventifact that typically forms in desert or periglacial environments due to the abrasive action of blowing sand.
Ventifact – Rock that has been eroded by wind-driven sand or ice crystals; Volcanic arc – Chain of volcanoes formed above a subducting plate; Volcanic cone – Landform of ejecta from a volcanic vent piled up in a conical shape; Volcanic crater – Roughly circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity
Hematite-rich BIF ventifact from Wyoming, USA. (~5.9 cm across at its widest) Ventifacts are lustrous, polished rocks with subplanar to curved facets. They form by natural abrasion and polish by winds that carry sand grains. Ventifacts are naturally sand-blasted rocks. The rock shown above is a BIF - a banded iron formation.
Pottsville conglomerate atop the Allegheny Front showing ventifact (wind) etching, Bear Rocks, Dolly Sods, West Virginia. Most of the Allegheny Front is capped by a nearly horizontal, erosion-resistant stratum (rock layer) of white Pottsville conglomerate, sometimes where flat with younger Carboniferous strata on top. [5]
A yardang near Meadow, Texas) (USDA photo Yardangs in the Qaidam Desert, Qinghai Province, China.. A yardang is a streamlined protuberance carved from bedrock or any consolidated or semiconsolidated material by the dual action of wind abrasion by dust and sand and deflation (the removal of loose material by wind turbulence). [1]
Hematite rich ventifact from Windy Gap, Wyoming with extensive polishing by wind. Mushroom rocks: Formations that develop over thousands of years when the top of an outcrop is eroded by wind at a slower rate than the base of the outcrop. Mushroom rocks from northern Arizona. Lag deposit