A devil's stovepipe or decomposition chimney is a hole formed when a tree, that has been buried by an encroaching
sand dune,
decomposes.
Under certain conditions the
bark will remain intact even after the core of the tree has rotted away. This cylinder of bark keeps the surrounding sand from collapsing in and thus creates a void, an unexpected occurrence in such an unstable medium.
Depending on the size of the tree from which it formed and its surface visibility, a devil's stovepipe may be quite dangerous. Someone passing above a wide stovepipe may fall in. Moreover, the fall is likely to disrupt the structure of the bark which had kept the hole open, thus allowing sand to fill the hole above them. For areas with large stovepipes there is a danger of suddenly becoming buried under significant quantities of sand.
Devil's stovepipes are mentioned as a hazard in the novel ''
Sometimes a Great Notion
''Sometimes a Great Notion'' is the second novel by American author Ken Kesey, published in 1964. While ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (1962) is more famous, many critics consider ''Sometimes a Great Notion'' Kesey's magnum opus. The story i ...
'' by
Ken Kesey
Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.
Kesey was born in ...
.
See also
*
Dune
*
Mount Baldy (sand dune): A
parabolic dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...
within
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
Indiana Dunes National Park is a United States national park located in northwestern Indiana managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation ...
where devil's stovepipes have been observed.
*
Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area
The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is located on the Oregon Coast, stretching approximately north of the Coos River in North Bend to the Siuslaw River in Florence, and adjoining Honeyman State Park on the west. It is part of Siuslaw Na ...
: An area in which devil's stovepipes occur.
References
{{reflist
External links
Personal account of falling into a small stovepipe.Article about a stovepipe accident in Indiana.Smithsonian article about Indiana incident
Dunes of the United States