Desert pavement

Desert pavement is a closely packed surface layer of stones covering fine-grained sediment in arid landscapes. It forms as wind and water remove or redistribute finer material, leaving coarser clasts exposed.

Aeolian deflation: Wind erosion that removes loose particles from the ground. Wind can carry away fine sediment, concentrating stones at the surface.
Regolith: The layer of loose material covering solid bedrock on a planetary surface. Pavement is a surface feature formed within the regolith.
Cosmogenic nuclide dating: A method that estimates how long a rock surface has been exposed using nuclides produced by cosmic rays. Exposure ages of pavement clasts constrain when surfaces became stable.
Desert varnish: A thin, dark coating of clay minerals and metal oxides that forms on exposed rock surfaces. Varnish coats individual stones; pavement describes their packed arrangement.
Stone armor: A coarse surface layer that protects finer sediment beneath it from erosion. Pavement clasts shield underlying sediment and help the surface persist.
Alluvium: Sediment deposited by flowing water. Alluvial deposits can supply the fine sediment beneath desert pavement.
Optically stimulated luminescence: A dating method that measures the last time mineral grains were exposed to sunlight. Dating buried sediment beneath pavement can reveal when it was last deposited.
Desert crust: A hardened surface layer formed by mineral cementation, biological activity, or both. Crusts bind or cement particles, unlike a pavement dominated by loose stones.
Lag deposit: A concentration of coarse material left behind after finer particles are removed. Desert pavement is a distinctive surface expression of a coarse lag.
Colluvium: Loose sediment accumulated at the base of slopes through gravity-driven movement. Slope-derived colluvium can provide clasts and fines for pavement formation.

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