ARTICLE NO. QR961872 Origin and Evolution of Lunettes on the High Plains of Texas and New Mexico

of all of the sites of late Quaternary deposition on the South-LunettesÐisolated dunes on the lee side of playa basinsÐare ern High Plains (valleys, playa-lake basins, sand dunes, and common landforms on the Southern High Plains of northwest lunettes), lunettes have received the least attention. Previous Texas and eastern New Mexico. The dunes contain calcareous investigations showed that these dunes contain buried soils (15±40 % CaCO3) sandy loam or loamy sand, with minor amounts and dateable materials (Judson, 1950; Holliday, 1985), sug-of sepiolite, deposited 25,000±8000 14C yr B.P. and derived by gesting that they contain stratigraphic records spanning the de¯ation of lacustrine carbonate in the basins. The dunes also past 30,000 years or more.contain low carbonate (0±15 % CaCO3) sand or loamy sand that This paper discusses recent investigations of the lithostrat-was deposited 25,000±15,000 yr B.P. and 8000±5000 yr B.P. and igraphy, pedostratigraphy, geomorphic evolution, and pa-was derived by de¯ation that created the basins or de¯ated from leoenvironmental implications of lunettes on the Southernsand deposited in the basins. Buried soils are common in the lu-High Plains. The stratigraphic, geomorphic, and paleoenvir-nettes: A-Bk pro®les characterize soils formed in the calcareous sandy loam; the sandy low-carbonate sediments contain A-Bt pro- onmental records preserved in lunettes complement those ®les in the oldest sand of some dunes, and A-Bw, A-Bt, or A-Btk available from valleys, playas, and dune fields (Gustavson e