White Sands National Park
| White Sands National Park | |||
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| Location: | New Mexico , United States | ||
| Next city: | Alamogordo | ||
| Surface: | 581.7 km² | ||
| Founding: | January 18, 1933 | ||
| Visitors: | 603.008 (2018) | ||
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The White Sands National Park [ waɪt ˌsændz - ] (German white sand ) is a nature reserve of the type of a national park at the northern end of the Chihuahua Desert, about 25 km southwest of Alamogordo ( New Mexico ) . In a wide valley - the Tularosa Basin - it covers the southern part of a 712 km² gypsum field on which huge dunes have formed.
Tularosa Basin
The gypsum that makes up the White Sands formed the bottom of a shallow sea that covered this region 250 million years ago. Ultimately, the result was sedimentary rock enriched with marine deposits , which was thrown up into a gigantic dome around 70 million years ago when the Rocky Mountains formed. Around ten million years ago, the center of this dome began to collapse and from then on formed the Tularosa Basin. The remaining edges of the sagging dome formation today form the San Andres Mountains and Sacramento Mountains .
genesis
White Sands
Gypsum ( calcium sulfate dihydrate ) is a mineral found high up in the San Andres and Sacramento Mountains. As the mountains lifted, it was loosened from the rocks by snow and rain over time. It then got into the Tularosa Basin and was successively deposited there as sediment . This would normally be carried into the sea by rivers, but since there is no drain in the Tularosa Basin, the gypsum and other dissolved sediments are trapped within the valley. After the water evaporated from the sediment, the gypsum crystallized . The crystals in turn broke into grains that were piled up by the wind to form huge white, dusty dunes.
One of the lowest points in the valley is a large dry lake that temporarily fills with water: Lake Lucero . As soon as its water evaporates again, dissolved gypsum collects on the surface.
There was even more gypsum deposits during the last Ice Age as a large lake - Lake Otero - covered most of the valley. It dried out and left a large alkali layer.
sand dunes
During periods of humid weather, when the water slowly evaporates, the gypsum deposits on the bottom of the dry lake in a crystalline form known as selenite . Selenite crystals cover the ground, some up to a meter long, and form layers along the coast of Lake Lucero and the Alkali Plain. The forces of nature, cold and warmth as well as moisture and dryness eventually break the crystals into small sand particles that are light enough to be carried away by the wind.
Strong winds blow over the dry lake, pick up gypsum particles and carry them with them. When the grains of sand pile up to form dunes, they collide with the gently curved, windward side of the dune and produce small waves on its surface. The sand builds up on the steep crest of the dune until gravity lets it slide off; this causes the dune to move forward.
There are four different types of dunes in White Sands :
- Dome-Shaped Dunes : The first dunes to form upwind from Lake Lucero are low sand mounds that move up to ten meters annually.
- Barch dunes: Crescent-shaped dunes form in areas with strong winds that only bring limited amounts of new sand.
- Diagonal dunes : In areas that are adequately supplied with sand, crescent-shaped dunes connect with one another and form long mountain ranges of sand.
- Parabolic dunes : Along the edges of the dune field, plants anchor the foothills of the crescent-shaped dunes with one another and reverse their shape.
Flora and fauna
Even plants and animals well equipped for desert life have problems surviving in the changing world of the dunes. A small number of plants have changed and adapted to prevent them from constantly being buried under sand. The Yucca elata ( Soap Tree Yucca ) extended their tribe so that their leaves are always above the sand and grow in this way up to 30 cm per year. Other plants hold part of the dune with their roots and can continue to grow on the sand base anchored in this way while the dune moves.
As in other deserts, most of the animals that live here stay in their burrows underground during the heat of the day and only appear at night. In the morning you can find traces of rodents , rabbits , foxes , coyotes , tree spikes and other nocturnal animals in the sand. Lizards , beetles and birds are diurnal and can be seen in the plant areas. A few animal species such as a pocket mouse , two species of lizards, and various insects have developed a white camouflage color that protects them from their predators.
National park
Starting from the visitor center at the entrance to the park, Dunes Drive leads twelve kilometers into the middle of the dunes, from where they can be explored on foot via four marked paths. In summer, the rangers also offer guided tours. However, about once or twice a week the park is closed for security reasons when missile tests are carried out in the White Sands Missile Range (White Sands Missile Range ) surrounding the park .
The reserve was established as a National Monument in 1933 . In 2008 the National Monument was included in the tentative list for nomination for UNESCO World Heritage . In December 2019 it was converted into a national park.
Web links
- National Park Service: White Sands National Park (official site; English)
swell
- Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Sebastian Junger, a. a .: Extreme der Erde , National Geographic Germany, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-936559-31-7 , page 62
Individual evidence
- ↑ Entry White Sands National Monument on UNESCO website