Death of a sand sea; an active aeolian erg systematically buried by the Etendeka flood basalts of NW Namibia

Here we report on a "fossilized" sand sea that was progressively engulfed by the basal Etendeka flood basalts in NW Namibia. Preserved relict aeolian landforms include transverse barchanoid dunes and isolated barchan dunes. Present-day preferential erosion of the lava flows exhumes relict aeolian bedforms preserved in the position in which they were migrating at the time of burial (c. 133 Ma). A passive eruption style of inflated pahoehoe flows has preserved the bedforms without significant deformation. The sediment interlayers record a decrease in sand supply and a change in palaeowind direction, which may have been driven by the ongoing break-up of west Gondwana, or may be a direct result of the widespread volcanism itself.