The desert landscape is often assumed to be 1FORM – a barren, fearless wasteland of endless sand or rubble and blistering, blinding sun. Anything more than a 2CURSOR glance, however, reveals a much more highly nuanced topography, whose very 3DIVERSE is made all the more visible by its near 4NAKED, veiled as it is by only the thinnest cloak of vegetation. Deserts are among the most eroded landscapes on earth, 5UNIQUE vulnerable to the action and interaction of three powerful natural agents: the heating effects of the sun, the scouring power of sand-laden wind, and, perhaps more surprisingly, the occasional onslaught of rushing water. Together, these natural forces carry out the process of 6MECH weathering by which rocks are physically riven into ever smaller 7PART. Wind and water also act as agents of transportation, carrying the debris that result from weathering to new sites. The topography – the surfaces, shapes, and 8RELIEVE of the land – that these natural forces create depends not only on climate but also on the nature of the raw material upon which they work.