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L72 White Gypsum Sand, White Sands National Monument, Alamogordo,
New Mexico, USA
Position:
N32° 70' W106° 20'
Elevation:
3000' / 900m
Image format:
35mm
WHITE GYPSUM SANDS
The term SAND refers more to grain size (approx. 0.1mm to 1mm
in diameter) than to the type of grain. Beach sands are often
made of shell fragments while the majority of wind blown sands
are made of quartz grains. Unusually, the grains at White Sands
are made of SALT and mainly of the variety known as GYPSUM (CaSO4). These are unusual because salts like Gypsum are soluble in
water. So what does this great accumulation of salt tell us about
the climate in this part of New Mexico, USA? Yes, it's very dry.
It's an arid desert.
To see where the gypsum may have come from in the first place,
follow the image trail.
Less detail
Image Trail:
L24, L31, L68, L69.
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