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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- This episode is sponsored by Endel, an app that creates personalized soundscapes to help you focus, relax and sleep.The first 100 people to sign up here get a one week free trial: app.adjust.com...
The aptly named White Sands National Park is home to over 400 square kilometers of blindingly white sand. It's the culmination of a remarkable 250 million year process of sorting, transporting, and purifying gypsum to make a truly one-of-a-kind place.
Hosted by: Hank Green
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This episode is sponsored by Endel, an app that creates personalized soundscapes to help you focus, relax and sleep.The first 100 people to sign up here get a one week free trial: app.adjust.com/b8wxub6?campaign=scishow_july&adgroup=youtube
I checked out Endel. While it does seem great, according to them everyone gets the one week free trial. Damn you Hank and your lies which are technically the truth! lol Edit: if you want the free trial tap "x" in the corner of the payment page in the app. Don't be fooled like I was into skipping the trial! Curses I am a dolt.
This episode is not sponsored by Grendel, a mythical monster that creates personalized horros and murder you in your sleep 😉
Everything had to fall into place at the right time ..sounds just like life on earth.
The host has the physique of a bartlett pear
Not into other people's playlists. Sounds as appealing as eating haggis.
What Hank didn’t mention is that the gypsum also stays cool to the touch even in the hot New Mexican sun. You can walk on the sand barefoot on a 100° day !
Really?
@@sarmientoenricomiguelv.562 yes really! I’ve been there during those conditions. The top layer is a bit hot but especially if you sink your feet in at all, it is not only not hot but actually cool
@@brightknight1965 that's so cool
The Albedo effect. Interesting
Hey I’m in southern New Mexico and only about 40 mins away! We never think anyone else cares about White Sands unless you want to make a ‘90s R&B music video. Thanks for explaining our little treasure. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
XD I'm dying over here, best description for White Sands ever
Omg i feel this so hard
Shitty old westerns and michael bay movies too lets not forget that 🤣
I came across the desert in an Audubon guide to the Southwest and it's been on my bucket list to visit ever since 😁
White sands is a hidden gem!!! Also team green chili😂
Been there. It’s a magical place. The most memorable things to me were how much the macro resembles the micro there - large dune patterns over distance (and from Google maps) look a lot like the texture on the ground from the wind, which is beautiful. It feels like you’re sitting in water if you put your legs over the edge of a dune.
A cool fact about the White Sands is it was selected as an alternate emergency landing site for the space shuttle. This is because it’s so distinctly white you can see it clearly from space and presumably aim for it.
Would you say that certain skin colors would fare better out there than others?
@@huldu look at the natural skin color that Native Americans had in the area. The sun chooses.
And guess what... everything there adapted and evolved to that particular climate change on its own ~ Without mRNA gene tampering 😏
No pharmaceutical company can match mother nature's timing and perfection.
@@kellikelli4413 aaand thousands of years and many dead generations
@@kellikelli4413 Your everything wrong with America right now.
As a former soldier once stationed at White Sands Missile Range, I can personally attest that it is a crazy and interesting sight to witness.
I was stationed in Bliss!
@@PTSD_Guts Bliss was my last stop before my final out. Definitely don't miss Beaumont.
@@ReaverPrime Im still finding sand and dust in my stuff and its been years
My first time there we took a wrong turn and got pulled over by a Humvee. I felt like we had broken into Area 51 or something lol
@@earag31415 most of the security is because it can be super dangerous, it's an active test fire range so being in the wrong place at the wrong time will get you blown up, on top of this there are areas with unexploded ordinance that could go off if disturbed.
Even on a hot day, the sand won't burn your feet.
Stark-white dunes rising up to meet the sky.
Deathly silent.
The place is spectacular!
Well arent we quite the poet now?
It will only burn your eyes.
"the blinding white remains of a dying sea" what a great title
+
Sounds like I clicked on an H.P. Lovecraft story
I was thinking a Cure song.
Came here to say it but you're killing it Kiro!
This!
I'm also from New Mexico, glad to get the word out on White Sands! It's a beautiful place, if you get a chance to visit. Late fall or mid spring are the best times, cooler seasons. I didn't know the full geologic and evolutionary history, thanks for the story!
Bring lots of water if you go
I love White Sands! It is such a marvel to experience!
Been there, make sure to bring sunglasses and something to cover ypur head and face. The heat and light reflected off the sand is insane.
The moisture in the air is also absorbed by the sand so it is sooooo dry. Bring lots of water.
Just like on the north and south pole...extremely dry and white if you go "inland" and you need eye protection to move around.
Much like being on the water, you burn easy, because the sun hits you twice.
But what's really cool is even on the hottest day you can usually go barefoot on the sands because they reflect so much of the heat away
@@Ender240sxS13 I went in February, and it was perfect! I wouldn’t advise going during the summer, though.
“The Blinding White Remains of a Dying Sea” sounds like the name of a great The 1975 album
There is a definite poetic hight in that line!
ELO ?
Supertramp ?
... volume 2
Prog rock bay-bee!
Or Radiohead...or Muse🤔
One of my favorite memories is of camping at White Sands during a full moon!
On an overcast day, the white sand looks like snow and under certain lighting conditions, one will lose all contrast and depth perception.
I think this phenomenon is called snow blindness. I wonder if that term carries over here though...
I went two weeks ago and it was was blinding! I couldn’t tell how steep the dunes right next to me were and ended up having to climb uphill more than I wanted to. Take sunglasses.
Wow
Snow blindness is damage done to your eyes from the sun reflecting off the snow. But the phenomenon that the poster is talking about is related to the snow also.
I have pictures from white sands where everyone is confused why I’m wearing shorts in snow!
I have a few Gypsum roses. They are formed by the wind. Literal roses looking like roses. They are beautiful. 🌹
literal... so roses looking like roses...
I have confused the White Sands in New Mexico for the Salt Flats in Western Utah more than once. I thought, "Where are there dunes in the Salt Flats?" I learned something new today.
Rolling Dunes + Life = White Sands
Exceedingly Flat - Life = Bonneville Salt Flats.
🎞 Ooh, ever saw the road trip drama, 'Bonneville' (2008)?
There is a scene where the three main characters visit the salt flats.
I spent some time on the Utah salt flats back in the early 80s in a year that they were flooded. It was amazing!!
I've been wanting to experience White Sands during a full moon. I've heard it's so beautiful!
Wife and I go to camp out on top of the dunes for a night. The sight is just as amazing at night as it is in the day. Gorgeous place.
You can tell they have been improving the production of these videos. The green screen's look great, Hank looks very natural. They went the extra mile and put the pics of the white animals in a scrap book. Even in the animation of how the basin was formed, they took the time and put banding in the sky, so it's not 3 flat boring colors. Keep it up!
I notice this too. I actually ccommented a while back about how the videos are boring and not engaging. Especially in a sea of videos, there's a lot of competition for my attention
"I'm gonna name it an Earless Lizard."
"Dammit, Bob. You're no longer allowed to name any new creatures."
If you are visiting, please bring sunglasses.
My parents took me and only had sunglasses for themselves and our eyes got pretty destroyed and it was soooo painful 😥.
This is advice I know for snow, but it didn’t occur to me that it would apply here too despite it basically being the same thing: light reflecting so strongly off a white environment that it can hurt you.
They made you the person you are today thanks to that. You learned a valuable lesson that you wouldn't have learned otherwise. They did a great job honestly.
@@huldu oh yeah, cause child neglect is such a great move...
@@huldu because no one telling him that he needed sunglasses is totally his fault amirite?
Oh no... SciShow has simplified their logo
I like it.
I kinda like the redesigned intro animation it goes with though
oh yes
Eh, they haven't given the new logo and intro any real character to stand out. I liked the older ones just fine. They were the right balance of simplicity and texture.
This was my backyard practically, just on the other side of the Organ Mountains in Las Cruces! Good to see them talking about home ^^
White Pocket Mouse 🐁 might just be the cutest sounding animal ever.
:-)
Love white sands, it's wild to visit in the winter when it's cold. New Mexico is grossly underrated.
Them: there's plenty of fish in the sea
The sea:
I see you've chosen a date with Ben Shapiro's wife
@Mendicant Bias It is a reference to Ben Shapiro's take on a particular song...
You are better for not knowing...
@@thanhavictus haha well played.
I have ridden Arabian horses there under the moon light, absolutely incredible.
No you haven't
I've been through the desert
On a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert, you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
It's a good thing you specified horses because that sentence could've been _very_ inappro-pro...
Everytime Hank hosts.... i have to watch it all. There is just something about him and scishow
Got a back country permit, and spent a full moon night somewhere out in the dunes, back in the eighties. It was spectacular. The ranger who issued the permit was blind, but told me I was there on the best night of the year to camp in the dunes. He was right.
What night?
@@RobinTheBot It was because of the full moon. The light and shadows were spectacular!
@@Kris_at_WhiteOaksFarm thanks!
Native New Mexican. It's basically the law that all New Mexicans have to visit White Sands at one point in their lives. Super cool place! Sledding down the dunes is a blast, but walking back to the top of the dune sure isn't!
White Sands, and Carlsbad Caverns, yeah? Among other things.
Yup! Carlsbad Cavers, White Sands, and Roswell lol
@@garrickanderson5204 Roswellite here. Honestly the other two have us beat
@@garrickanderson5204 No offense to the people of Roswell, but I've heard that the town and especially the UFO museum are generally overrated due to the hype surrounding the history of the potential UFO sightings there. Worth seeing once and stopping in Carlsbad as well, although if you’re going to visit White Sands you should stay in Las Cruces which is closer
There's plenty of other great stuff in New Mexico that deserves a visit. I can personally recommend Santa Fe as a whole (I'm a bit biased because I live there, but there's a reason I chose to move there), Valles Caldera National Preserve, the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge (one of the few "wildlife refuges" where I've actually been pleasantly surprised by the amount and variety of wildlife I saw there), and the Organ Mountains between Las Cruces and White Sands
Growing up in New Mexico, we would go to white sands and go dune sledding. It really is such an amazing state park. Everyone should go visit! “It’s not snow, it’s sand”
I'm so glad to finally have a video on this! My family grew up right next to White Sands ❤
Funny timing, I just found my sample of a visit there when I was maybe 10 years old. I still have fond memories of a day playing in the huge sandbox. We didn't take a sample intentionally, but when we got back to the place we where staying for the night my parents discovered that our socks shoes pockets and hair where full of the stuff. My sample still has some sock lint in it to this day some 30 years later.
10/10 recommended visiting if anyone hasn't. It's beautiful. And the sand is cool to the touch. I would love to go back.
Similar thing with rock pocket mice evolving dark fur on New Mexico's lava fields.
Lived in Las Cruces for 8 years, went over a dozen times, it never got old... The most fun was the 'Midnight Book Reading', it was/is held every month during the night of the full moon... Bring your chair, your coffee or tea, a good book or newspaper and spend the evening relaxing by reading with moonlight... oh yeah, don't forget your sweaters and blankets, even if it were 90 degrees during day, by midnight, it would be 50 degrees.
So there was some oceanfront property there once, and under the right conditions you'll experience a whiteout /snow blindness
Talk about timing. I was literally just there on Sunday. Blinding is a very accurate description. Even with a hat and sunglasses on.
Drove by it day before yesterday with all the moisture and the mirage made it vanish until we were closer than usual. I personally love it when it's a bit more clearly a beautiful white expanse than when it decides to remember that it used to be water, but you really can't go wrong....
I’ve lived in New Mexico all my life and I’ve driven past White Sands many times but I have never known how it formed. Thanks SciShow
I can't believe you covered White Sands! I live about a half hour away and I love our national parks. You guys should do Carlsbad Caverns one of these days, it's also pretty breathtaking.
Wait how are we destroying it? At this point I just assume we threten everything.
Well if climate change makes it rain more then I guess the sand will eventually dissolve away. Dunno if there’s anything more “immediate” than that though
@@TPishek That sounds unlikely given the massive drought in the west.
There is a missile range there, where the military tests weapons. Some species may be endangered, like the White Sands pupfish, but I'm unaware of others. The White Sands Missile Range actually extends into the Trinity Site where the first nuclear bomb was detonated, in the Jornada del Muerto desert.
Many people steal a jars worth of it when they visit
It was literally the first place on earth to get nuked.
My father grew up in El Paso.. spent alot of family time there. My grandmother alos painted the White Sands several times. I have one hanging in my Florida home today👍
You can tell just by the title that this is a Hank Green episode
Hank is the homie forever
I primitive camped there one evening back in the day. An amazing place. Thanks for the geological explanation of how it was created.
Yooo, I live like 15 minutes away from there!!! 😆
Thanks for giving our little treasure some love :)
no wonder ur profile picture is in black and white😂😂😂
Was there at the beginning of June. When they describe it as blinding...it is BLINDING! Such an incredible place to go. Hope to be back very soon (like, October-sh)
This is cool! I grew up in that area, and visited White Sands fairly regularly. I had no idea about the unique animals there.
White Sands NP is really fun to visit. My son's boy scout troop got to spend a weekend there sleeping in the middle of the dunes when the moon was full. We played tag at midnight for fun because it was so bright out from the moon's reflection on the white sand. They also do a bike ride through the area a couple times a year at night. If you go just bring a lot of water, you get thirsty very fast from the heat and dryness.
Having been born in this area, but not raised there, this was very fascinating! Thank you as always, SciShow!
Hey! I live very close to there! And I gotta say, its one of the funnest places to just bbq and have fun with friends. Sometimes like yesterday though the tourists are just unbearable.
So, you don't live there, but you visit to bbq and have fun with friends. Doesn't that make you a tourist too?
Isn't most of it a missile range?
@@thelonecabbage7834
It's a national park, and/or missile range. Nobody "lives" there; they live around there.
Reminds me of people who say they "live in Tampa Bay": what, you a mermaid or something?
Alamogordo gang?
@@thelonecabbage7834 well no, I live as close as you possibly can get to the dunes without living in them lmao. White sands NM is a town too, just inside a national park.
I been there a couple times. Truly amazing and weird experience. I went in the summer and it a desert pretty much, well it was very sunny but the sand was COLD. Like very cold in your bare feet and super bright but I didn’t understand why it was cold there. I did see some white lizards but not much else when it comes to living things. Some plants too and there’s a bunch of hills for you to go up and down as if it was snow. Great times
I've been there. It's pretty awesome. But the light reflecting off the sand is intense! Sunblock and dark shades are a must.
So crazy how many unique and crazy places we have on earth. I can't even begin to imagine how much kind of unique places exist on other planets.
How much there is to be explored in the vast universe.
Fun fact: when visiting White Sands Missile Range you need to watch a video on possible hazards you may encounter.. including golf ball like cluster munitions that explode after rotating a number of times, sometimes after falling they don't.. but by picking them up you trigger them.
I had to watch every time I went
Spent a couple of years at Holloman AFB right next to White Sands, and it is an amazing place.
Went there back in the mid '80s when I was a kid. My grandmother had put some of the sand in a jar. Now I'm wondering if it's in storage.
I used to go there all the time when I was stationed at Holloman AFB and later White Sands Missile Range. Aside from visiting the park, I also went to a meteorological station located at the birthing point of the white sand dunes which is a dry lakebed. I also did weather support for the space shuttle when it landed there.
Can you do a video about the Dead Sea?
Na, far to salty a topic for this channel! 😉
When I was stationed at Holloman AFB we would go there on the weekends, it's truly unique.
I've been there. Even with sun glasses on, I wanted to put on a pair of sunglasses. Amazing place.
Oh and if you're there, Holloman AFB is just down the road, and they have a nice display of aircraft. (You can have a camera there, just not anywhere else on the base...)
I have visited! It's beautiful. Never seen anywhere remotely like it.
Ha! I was there last year! Its right by a military base. Its an amazing place. I had fun scribbling on the sand with a stick. Beautiful place.
Dang just made my bucket list, I love the dunes
Love what you're wearing today Hank! The bright pink-and-orange tee is a wonderfully stark contrast to the black-and-white shirt!
I went to college at New Mexico State University which is only about 30 minutes away. We would go all the time and during full moon night they would open up. Place is amazing
Hello from Las Cruces, NM.
If you visit White Sands: bring sunscreen, sunglasses to avoid our version of snow blindness, and either leave your phone and wallet in the car or bring zip-lock baggies to put them in. The sand gets in Everything and can destroy electronics ports and scratch up debit cards(but will wonderfully exfoliate your feet). Also try not to wander too far from where you park. You can easily get turned around and disoriented...especially on days you can't see the mountains clearly.
Gypsum is also what drywall is made from. Been there a few times, it is quite a unique place to see.
I live in New Mexico. White Sands is amazing! Plan ahead and be flexible, they do still close W.S. and the main highway leading to it for missile tests.
New design looking good!
My parents used to take me here when we lived in El Paso.
“Eerily white”… that’s how I identify.
🤔
I feel targeted 😉
@@jessicaclakley3691 just go out in the sun
So you’re one of those sea peoples?
@@Q_QQ_Q I would, except it’s high summer and I’m afraid the rays reflecting off my skin just might start a wildfire 🔥
REALLY COOL video. I've been wanting to know more about the area and have been doing so much research lately.
Neat analysis! Thanks for uploading!
Ive been there and the sand is surprisingly cool on the top, And if u dig ur feet into it the gypsum gets cold.
This is such a wonderful video. Thanks for the entertainment.
Lived in Las Cruces the last two years of my high school career back in the mid/late 70s and we would cross over the Organ Mountain pass on the highway to Alamogordo and go to White Sands IF there wasn't a missile test or training exercise that day at nearby Holloman Air Force Base which hosted at least one Space Shuttle landing.
really so interesting. very well presented! i never heard of this before. and thanks for speaking a little more slowly - it’s much easier to listen to. 🌷🐭
You missed the chance to mention that because it is not regular sand it does not get nearly as hot so even though it is in super hot place the dunes stay relatively cool - so much so you can walk on them or sled down them and not burn your skin.
I'm from New Mexico and the time I visited White Sands with my senior class trip I recall the Ranger tell us not to to fill our little jars with the white sand and take it home with us. He then told us they were not going to check our shoes. I guess the implications was that we would have plenty of sand once we returned home and emptied our shoes out. He was right.
I love The White Sands it’s magical and a please to heal and just feel peace
When ppl ask me what to do in New Mexico I always tell them it’s out nature that you will fall in love with and in that list is the White Sands…
Next one is the Valley of Fire National Recreation Area in New Mexico. It's not too far away and an amazing difference showing the lava flows that dried up... and that you can now walk on (which is extremely neat to do)
Oh. Also Bottomless State Parks outside of Roswell. It's amazing seeing lakes just having out in the desert.
Amazing that no one mined it!
It's illegal to actually mine White Sands, as it is split between a national park and a military base
@@ConfalGaming That's wonderful, that it got protected before it could be destroyed. Humans do not have a great track record in this area!
400 square Km = 154 square miles. Just an FYI. Edit: cool vid, btw! 👍
I have a picture of my dad standing on the top of a gypsum mound when he was stationed at Holliman AFB, NM (near Alamogordo) in 1947. I would be born 5 years later at James Conley AFB, TX (near Waco). And now, here I am 69 years later watching a video about the gypsum fields in New Mexico. “What a looooooooong, strange trip it’s been.”
Edit #2: if dad were alive, he’d be 107 today, 7/21/21. Miss you, dad.....and Happy Birthday!
I love going there.
Geological marvel and a source of a lot of fond memories and generations of fun. Remember sledding there while grandpa drank beer and made sandwiches for us. Also remember birding there with my grandmother (sagebrush sparrows!) and taking my own kids there--buying ice cream at the gift shops which we ate in the blazing August heat, until the sun went down and it cooled off.
I don't get why it hasn't happend with snakes though; I've seen hognoses (probably H. nasicus?, bullsnakes, and at least two species of crotalus out there, but albinism or luecisism doesn't seem to occur in general in snakes out there.
I live in Spain right down the road from one of the largest gypsum deposits in the world.
Please talk about the mud volcano explosion
WELL SAID AS ALWAYS
Those dunes reminded me of 4 Cienegas in Mexico, I don't know if those were formed by the same process but that's a pretty unique habitat, unfortunately extensive agriculture is damaging that region
I was there on a cloudy day, when it wasn't too hot, or too cold. I took a nap on a sandhill for about 30 minutes. When I woke up, there was a trail of a sidewinder rattlesnake about three feet below my feet. I probably won't take another nap on a sandhill.
I read this as "The Blinding White Remains of a Dying Seal" and was wondering when the seal was going to be talked about 😂
I don't remember where it is at, but there is an area where the brown sand buts up to a black lava flow. The mouse population evolved to black haired mice and white haired mice. Can you do a show about that?
Been there a few times, you should have mentioned the introduced oryx that are thriving there.
Hank is the best ♥️
The White Sands National Park is entirely contained within the White Sands Missile Range.
The first ever nuclear bomb, Trinity, was tested at that range.
It's also where the US tested the German V-2 rocket design which led to both ICBMs and the space program.
Space Shuttle Columbia landed there once at the end of STS-3.
Even now, errant missiles sometimes end up in the park and they will often close the park to visitors during certain tests.
Had something kinda like this where I grew up in Oklahoma
I love paying for Premium so I don't have to skip through ads, but still have to skip through ads.........
Just use an ad blocker, no having to pay for anything.
Ad block for ads and SponsorBlock to skip Sponsored segments.
Bless the creators that put time stamps in their videos so it only takes one tap to skip their sponsor section lol
You seriously pay for premium? How much acid was in the tub, when you took a dive in?!
Are you utterly insane?!
That's what you get for wasting money on premium.
I used to go there and play in the sand as a kid
Reminds me of the burn in ffxiv wonder if this was the inspiration (still a cool place either way)
Natural wonder!
I like the new background and look 👍