Journal of Arid Environments (2000) 46: 123–135 doi:10.1006/jare.2000.0663, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on Desert loess in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates A.S. Goudie*, A.G. Parker*, P.A. Bull*, K. White- & A. Al-Farraj? *School of Geography, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB, U.K. ? Department of Geography, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AB, U.K. @ Department of Geography, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, P.O. Box 16722, United Arab Emirates (Received 2 March 1999, accepted 25 May 2000) Wind-blown silt deposits, generally termed loess, have been described from a range of desert areas. This paper describes the location, character and origin of a newly discovered coarse loess deposit in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates.  2000 Academic Press Keywords: loess; deserts; United Arab Emirates Introduction Loess is generally regarded as a largely unconsolidated, non-stratified sediment, consisting predominantly of silt-sized materials, and deposited primarily by the wind. Very large deposits occur in China, Central Asia, the Mississippi Valley, and elsewhere. There has long been debate concerning the existence of desert or peri-desert loess (Smalley & Vita-Finzi, 1968; Chao & Zing, 1982; Tsoar & Pye, 1987). The origin of many of the world’s largest loess deposits has been attributed to glacial foreland environments as a result of the deflation by wind of glacially ground material. However, it is also evident that deflational activity and dust storms are prevalent in arid areas, and there are a number of sources of silty material including alluvium, inland playas, coastal sabkhas, winnowed sand seas, and rock flour produced by salt weathering. Moreover, in recent years a number of loess deposits have been identified in arid regions including the Matmata area of Tunisia (Coude H -Gaussen et al., 1982; Dearing et al., 1996), the Namib (Blu K mel, 1982), northern Nigeria (McTainsh, 1987), eastern Afghanistan (Pias, 1971), the Potwar Plateau of Pakistan (Rendell, 1984), the Negev Desert (Yaalon & Dan 1974), Syria (Ro K sner, 1989), Iran (Lateef, 1988), and the Island of Bahrain (Door- nkamp et al., 1980). It has also been postulated that loess exists in mainland Arabia, both in Yemen (Nettleton & Chadwick, 1996; Coque-Delhuille & Gentelle, 1998) and in Saudi Arabia (P. Vincent, pers. comm.). The purpose of this paper is to record and describe the presence of a loess deposit (Fig. 1) in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates (Fig. 2). 0140-1963/00/100123#13 $35.00/0  2000 Academic Press