in 1899 the first description of antidunes was presented by vaughan cornish to the royal geographical society. he observed that while water was flowing down stream waves occurred that traveled up stream depositing sand and other material. this observation was later validated by john s. owens in 1908. the term antidune was coined by g.k. gilbert in a 1914 us geological survey professional paper entitled “transportation of debris by running water”. he wrote this report in conjunction with e. c. murphy, their description of antidunes and stationary waves that expanded on cornish and owens' previous report. their information was gathered during a laboratory investigation sponsored by the u.s. geological survey. the first person to attempt an analytical description of antidunes was walter b. langbein in 1942. he applied dimensional analysis to gilberts' results and came up with transition points using froude numbers versus velocity and hydraulic radius.