dunes...errr sand waves... err, dunes...oy vey!

Sedimentary bedform classification is messy. Several classification schemes exist and they certainly do not all agree. A sand wave to some folks is a dune to others and a mega-ripple to still others. As Gail Ashley (1990) put it, bedform classification "is analogous to the story of the blind men and the elephant." Despite the efforts by Ashley and others almost twenty years ago, there still does not seem to be one agreed upon classification scheme. This has been my headache today, as I try to wade through them all and find one that is widely-accepted and easy to work with.