Gypsum sand dunes, White Sands National Park, New Mexico, USA
© Grant Kaye/Cavan Image
Sands of time
At a quick glance, you might mistake these dunes for massive snowdrifts. Although they do make for great sledding, the tiny crystals that make up White Sands National Monument are not ice but gypsum, a soft mineral often used to make plaster and chalk.
The pearly sands compose the largest gypsum dune field in the world but cover just a fraction of southern New Mexico's Tularosa Basin. This vast desert valley - more extensive than some US states at 10,400 square kilometres - is mostly occupied by the White Sands Missile Range. The active military installation - the US' largest by area - surrounds the National Monument and includes the Trinity site, where the first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945.
That event altered the course of humanity's future, but the White Sands region is also defined by echoes from our very distant past. Recently, scientists have used radar technology to zero in on prehistoric human, mammoth, and giant sloth footprints buried long ago beneath the shifting sands.
Related Images
Castildetierra in the Bardenas Reales, Navarre, Spain
An ultralight aircraft flying over the sands of Namibia
Sandstone formations in the badlands near Caineville, Utah, United States
Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park, Germany
Lake Tyrrell, Victoria, Australia
Sunset at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, USA
Sossusvlei sand dunes, Namib desert, Namibia
Sunset in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Maranhão, Brazil
Today on Bing
Zahara de la Sierra, Andalusia, Spain
Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada
Lake Schrecksee, Allgäu Alps, Bavaria, Germany
