The Geologic Oddity in New Mexico; White Sands National Park
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- What you are looking is not snow. Although it is relatively cold to the touch, it is not related to water or ice. Rather, it is an expansive dune field made of the largest concentration of white sands on the planet. Largely protected within White Sands National Park, this geologic oddity has an unusual origin. This video will discuss how these dunes came to be, and mention the scope of this geologic wonder. This video was made by a geologist who is based in Arizona.
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I have physically visited this National Park, and it truly is a strange place. Your mind wants to think that it is snow, even though it is not. At the same time it tells you that its sands, and therfor must be hot to the touch. However, even on a hot summer day, the sands are unusually cool to the touch which feels great :D.
I also went and saw graders pushing the sand of the road and creating sand banks just like snow!
Getting buried in the cool sand (minus your head) is a great experience, very relaxing. Inches from the surface the sand takes on a darker appearance and almost seems wet. Don't forget to wax your sled and be weary of vegetation while at top speeds. The flat, cracked areas where flora of the area seem to most propagate can get warm, and pocky, on the bare feet. These spots remind me of salt. The omittance of the Trinity Test site was actually a welcomed change of pace from most resources covering White Sands National Monument. I learn several new things everytime I watch one of your videos. Thank you. Again, great job.
@@wezzard It is a constant battle to keep the road between Las Cruces and Alamogordo from getting eaten by the ever blowing sands.
Geologic oddities...great subject in general. 👍
Fun fact: Siesta Key beach is made up of the same sands. It is the only beach in Florida of this type of sand.
I have sledded the sand dunes many a time when this was a National Monument. It is fun sledding, but way slower than snow. On one trip we sledded the dunes and then drove to Cloudcroft and sledded on snow on the same day.
I have been all over this park and the lava for work. Very unique place
U can surf dunes with wax cardboard
I love how you managed to add a volcano to a video about sand dunes. That's dedication. I would be very interested in more coverage of the volcanic features of the South West with emphasis on New Mexico and Colorado. Your series are outrageously good. I have greatly enjoyed the volcanoes and impact craters and am looking forward to whatever topics you choose to cover. Thank you for your hard work and professionalism.
What he said!
I second this!
yes ! but add Texas.
yes, but add california!
I subscribed after a search for Dotsero in Colorado and was pleasantly surprised to recently find there is a whole series on gemstones prior to the volcanos! Talk about hidden gems! Those videos are far enough down on the videos page that it takes watching a few hours of volcano videos to find them if you're going back in time sequentially. It's been a great trip!
Thanks for the info on the Carrizozo lava field - I’ve twice stopped to look at it while driving through there but had no idea it was that old, 3250BC - looks like it happened maybe a hundred years ago as does the sparce plant life growing on it.
Keep in mind that if you go out on that sand on a warm day it will be unbearably hot with the heat reflecting all over you. I went there on a cool 60s day in the Fall with a thermometer. Air temp was 65, but out on the sunny sand it was 84. So it gains about 20 degrees more or less depending on the wind.
I grew up right by there in El Paso - so much fun. Also happen to be a geologist and we did field trips to Lake Lucero (the source of gypsum sands) and could collect arm-length selenite crystals.
😯
This valley is really amazing. Shield volcano, aboriginal petroglyphs, Billy the Kid, whites Sands, and the trinity site.
Don't forget UFOs!
Id be interested in seeing a video on Pilot Knob in Travis County Texas
I have a question that importunates me for quite some time. 1:46 you mentioned that US southwest was a much wetter place during the last ice age. So, when and why did the North American deserts form? You can answer briefly here, or you can use this as a topic suggestion for a future video. I really like to study earth's biomes and deserts specially fascinate me.
You have asked a very interesting question which I would like to know the answer to as well. Thank you.
Or you could just look it up yourself. I'll give you a hint. The desert is caused by lack of rainfall which is caused by something called a rain-shadow. Okay another hint: the rain-shadow is caused by the Sierra Nevada mountain range blocking most Pacific moisture. Okay last hint. The Sierra Nevada mountain range hasn't always been there. Okay off to Wikipedia with you now.
@@headlessspaceman5681 Makes sense, thanks
Spent a night in the back country there, on a full moon night. Magical!
That was a highlight of my life I will never forget!
You can amaze your friends when you visit these dunes... but taking a pinch of the sand into your mouth and chewing it...! Gypsum/Selenite has a hardness of 2 (on the Moh's scale of hardness). Your teeth are made of calcium phosphate and have a hardness of 4... so the gypsum is easily ground by your teeth. Your friends who don't know this are expecting the same hardness of quartz sand which has a hardness of 7... and they expect that your brain will get rattled if you chew this sand!
Colorados great sand dunes would be a great video. Used to live a few hrs drive away but never went to them. Would be cool to see a video about them
If you take highway 380, heading east from San Antonio (south of Socorro) you will have to drive through white sands. As you enter you will see a highway sign that reads "Beware of Low Flying Missiles." They're not kidding.
Also, if you drive out there at night and watch the sky (no ambient light and go on a dark moon night) you will see amazing things in the sky. It is well worth the trip.
Also, from a geological standpoint, New Mexico is a geologist's playground. White Sands, dormant volcanoes and in Jemez-a caldera every bit as dangerous as Yellowstone-but it gets nowhere as much attention. The Rio Gtande valley is a rift valley. In central NM the valley was very much seismically active from the 1940's to the late 80's but has been eerily quiet since then.
We actually had an earthquake intense enough to be felt on one side of town a year or two ago. It was the first one my family had ever felt. We are in El Paso. I’ve had dreams about the volcanoes around here (which surround us on all sides) suddenly erupting and wrecking havoc on our region.
are you referring to the dormant volcanos or the sand dunes as being dangerous or both? i have read about the dangers of getting lost out in the dunes. I am toying with a very long road trip from Canada to New Mexico with my kids, wondering how much danger there is to consider.
@@zendragon4037 When I referred to Jemez caldera as being "dangerous", mostly I was being sarcastic. There is a certain youtuber that every week-"Yellowstone is about to blow." She's full of BS, just trying to draw clicks to her channel. Unfortunately, she has a legion of followers that believe her.
Anyway, 380 goes through the middle of white sands. There are placrs to pull off but I WOULD NOT advise wandering off into the dunes-too much could go wrong. Stay within 100 feet of your car and you can enjoy the sands and stay safe. Further down 380 is the Carrizozo malpais. This lava flow is 6k to 10k years old, but because it is coal black it looks fresh and new. Further down 380 is the very famous Roswell (home of the UFO). I WOULD NOT advise drinking Roswell tap water. It is loaded with lime, calcium and sulfur. It stinks bad and tastes even worse. Stick to bottled water and sodas.
Another point of interest-you might pass through Albuquerque. Ride the tram car to the top of Sandia mountain for a breathtaking view. There is a restaurant at the top of the mountain. Lunch is moderately priced. You need reservations for supper-which is much more expensive.
The afore mentioned Jemez caldera is in the Jemez forest. If you are experienced hikers it is easy to get to.
@@The_Dudester thanks for all that info! I didn't know one could drive through white sands Park. I thought you had to park at the entrance and then walk trails.
Major magnitude 7.6 earthquake - South Atlantic Ocean, South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands, on Thursday, 12 Aug 2021 4:32 pm (GMT -2)
Thank you!
Wonderful information, that would be vastly improved if it was delivered by a human being and not a machine. As good and evolved this technology is, the intonation is so repetitive that it is tiring to listen to. Perhaps in it’s next phase of evolution artificial speech might be indiscernible, but for now, it’s not ready for prime time. Thanks again.
i think it may actually be a human with that type of speaking style. every last word in a string ends with a down sound.
@@ravensnflies8167 The intonation is mechanically repetitive, unlike human speech. If you listen to the sounds without listening to the words, it becomes plainly obvious.
Great vid, as far as "new topics" i personally love and visit the mt whitney, death valley area often my whole life. Mt whitney is 10 ft taller than when i first climbed it. Thanks for everything
Mt. Whitney is probably taller, but are you sure about 10 ft.? That seems a bit extreme....
@@stonew1927 Weather can be Extreme & cause Extreme Events. Perhaps the earth has sunk a bit around it to due to weathering & people!? Another option is wrong conversion tables from metrics to Imperial measurement or forgetting to use them. Do you remember the time that NASA made that monumental & very expensive catastrophic mistake due to using both imperial & metric data! Lol
How could you not mention the old Dune movie was filmed there!! Lol
I lived at Holloman AFB for 3 years, White Sands is where we had beach parties with no water!
Fascinating! I didn't even know it was there. It's amazing how many wonders exist just within the borders of the USA.
Seriously, I drove around taking in sights for 40 days, only to realize that I'd need 40 years to really take it all in.
It's odd to others in the world that a high percentage of Americans do not have a passport, maybe they don't understand that there is enough to see here , within our borders, that is affordable to do for many of us.
I 've always wondered why people want spend their $ going to Europe, etc only to be insulted and over charged for 2nd rate junk whe the US is a land of wonders a lifetime couldn't see. Saw White Sands in 1969 when I was 17. Have never forgotten the weirdness and beauty.
Great vid. We’re going there tomorrow for the first time and this made it even more exciting. I love learning about the o
Places we visit on our full time RV. Coaster tour! Thanks for posting 😁
I love this channel. As an amateur geologist and rock hound, I find the information your provide is above high quality. I would love for you to cover how the White Sands area was affected by the last Ice Age flood from the destruction of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during a cataclysmic event approximately 12,000 years ago. The entire Southwest was a giant flood land that stretched all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
As someone who used to live in Alamogrodo, NM, this was a common sight for me. Had a ton of fun going up and down the dunes as a kid
The white sands are what lay underneath the oil sands in Canada along with the things that are petrified.
That geology would make an interesting video, I bet. ✌️😎
@@erinmcdonald7781 thank you I am working on this +how the dinosaur tracks and human tracks got on the Colorado Plato Arizona.
@@donchilders226 That sounds pretty cool. Is it a video or research?
@@erinmcdonald7781 I have done a lot of resurch and have looked to make myself wrong it all comes together so well and so easy to understand and we have events today that show what can happen covers how dinosaur tracks got to certain areas I have talked with people that work in the oil sands they find really interesting petrified stuff.
Outstanding. Glad you mentioned the lava flow at carrizozo .Tiny cone but the lava had to be unusually hot and fluid to cover such a distance. Several earlier cones and their attendant flows are to the north of it.
So, these dunes are still growing? That's really neat.
Been there...freaking amazing! Pictures do it no justice, just like Alaska.
There's no contrast between "recommended" and "encouraged" -- you meant "permitted" (in place of "recommended").
I took your advice 25 years ago and slid down The White Sands, bruised my coccyx and had trouble sitting during university lectures, thanks a lot!
And thanks for the explanation that caused the bruising.
Could have done that just trying to slide down some stairs as I did about 30 years ago.
Perhaps that very bruising save your life. I receive the same type of bruising at 14 simply by sitting down to hard. It did save my life. God bless you
Yes Please, more on So Colorado ,great sands, Sangre de Cristos, Cotopaxi to -Royal Gorge. thank you. I will subscribe
How about a video on the Stromatolites of Shark Bay in Western Australia. And the influence that Stromatolites have had on the planet.
So it's not quartz sand like the southeastern US shores. An interesting opposite, the white sand in AZ was *precipitated from* a sea, while the Gulf Coast's white sand is *carried to* the sea.
You should do a video on Natural Bridge at some point. It’s both a geologic oddity and also a historically significant place.
Fascinating how this formed! And that the surface stays relatively cool. Desert dunes are interesting. You should do Coral Pink Sand Dunes in southern Utah!
Never heard of it! But I'd love to see it. 😎
I also grew up in El Paso and we would surf down these high dunes.
I remember, seeing the White Sands stretch for miles when we would go snow skiing in the mountains of Cloud Croft and Ruidoso.
The views from the mountains looking down at the White Sands dunes were amazing.
When I was a kid, many years ago now, we would head to the white sand dunes like some people head to beach. All the fun of playing on the beach except no ocean. lol There would be families everywhere and kids sliding down the dunes all day long. If you haven't been with your kids, it's a must go if you're in New Mexico. There is also one of the best caverns in the states in Carlsbad, NM. They don't call NM the Land of Enchantment for nothing!
Why say they are 40 miles from Los Cruces? Separated by a mountain when Alamogordo is less than half the distance and a straight line. I grew up in Alamogordo, White Sands was an awesome playground for us as kids. Waxed boards and high dunes. So cool!
I have been to White Sands several times, and it is fascinating and well worth the trip. However, several things should be pointed out. Saguaro cactuses are not found anywhere near White Sands, NM. Also, the chemical reaction shown at 1:24, while balanced, does not represent the actual process by which gypsum and selenite are formed. They form when pre-existing calcium ions and sulfate ions precipitate out from solution.
Straight to the point, under five minutes with great quality! You ser gain a sub and many likes to come!
I visited there in the mid 80s, and what struck me the most (other than the epic sunburn I received) was that the sand was cool to the touch on a scorching hot day!
white reflect the sunlight unlike other colors....especially black with ABSORBS all the sunlight since black consists of ALL colors......white is a NON-color and therefore sunlight, which consists of many colors reflect off of white .....try touching a white car on a hot sunny day compared to a black car.....you will find the same effect...
So you remember when it used to be $1 per carload now its so ridiculous $25 a car load. Or $15 per person, I never go anymore even though I only live about 30 minutes away from there.
When I was 13 (c. 1966), my family stayed in Las Cruces for about 6 weeks (my father was taking a class at the University of New Mexico). We drove to White Sands one Sunday and spent several hours there, just enjoying the park. I got the most gorgeous suntan that day, but it unfortunately faded within about 48 hours. What an amazing Nationl treasure!
I strongly recommend a video explaining and talking about th world famous "Morrison Formation"
Cool video! Can you please tell me how the Ozark mountains were formed? And now I'm a new subscriber!
I live just south of White Sands, the Tularosa Valley is an awsome place to grow up. Kilbourne Hole is also a really cool geologic feature in the region, its a huge Maar that blew up through a lava flow thus preserving it from completely filling in from erosion
My lack of research has prohibited me from confirming, though I recall this tale from many of years ago and wonder if perhaps you may know of the validity of a fossilized giant sloth being found at/near Kilbourne Hole? Taken and displayed at The Smithsonian, was how I heard it.
@@aaronh1372 it was found in Aden crater which is the Volcano that the lava flow Kilbourne blew up through came from
@@brasstard7.627 So, it's not just only a legend?! Lol, thank you. Did the specimen hold significant rarity, maybe being the best preserved and most intact giant sloth ever found? If so, would such a narrative still hold true? Ok, google! Riddle me this, from Aden Crater...
Wow that really is an amazing shade of white. Or lack of shade? I need to take a drive there some day, not too far from me, about 5 hours I think. Plus fireworks are legal in NM and rockets at the end of a long drive seem like a good thing.
It is surprisingly deceptive with the land being so bright and yet the ground is cool to the touch. Simply because of its heat absorption properties. Which it has almost none.
@Don Mernale. Except don't take any fireworks to White Sands as it is a National Park. Fireworks would spoil the pristine quiet and beauty of White Sands for other visitors.
I was where this vid was filmed when I was 12 and in my early 30’s I now live in northern Alberta and we have the Athabasca sand dunes about 8 hours north of me up the ice roads. I now desperately want to see these dunes up north.
Get some dark sunglasses if you visit. The sand is pretty much as bright as snow. :-)
From the Sacramento Mountains, White Sands looks like a gigantic herd of sheep.
It’s absolutely Beautiful …growing up in Elpaso Texas it was one of the great geological wonders of the area …among Carlsbad Caverns , Hueco Mountains .and others
I’m also from El Paso. A i am still here, too. I love this land here! It is a geologist’s playground!
@@pandakicker1 I live in Virginia now the New River Valley area … incredible super old metamorphic geology
I don't remember the name of the lizard but it has two colour forms;
One living in White sands has a rather white pale colour.
One living in the surrounding countryside is grey brownish in colour.
That'd be the bleached earless lizard and the lesser earless lizard.
How about a story of the Owens Valley in Eastern California?
I had fun with the board and wax they give you to skate down the dunes!! Alamagordo is where we stayed. Selinite is also great to wear for protection. Do not bath with it on. It melts away!!
There are sand dunes north of Fort McMurray Alberta, you could do a piece on them...
please do the Ceahlau Natiional Park.
It is a very old volcanic complex in Ronania, and i seem to find very few information about it.
It really looks like a very interesting geological feature.
Is this the guy that read for the national weather service? That cadence and tone are very convincing lol
This rather "Recent" volcanic activity in America was more eye opening to me than the main one tbh, congrats on both.
Always have wanted to visit this place. Great video, thanks!
Very good presentation overall. You could do with a more relaxed natural delivery intonation. That monotone dead pan needs work. I'll add that speaking like you're talking to someone in person might be helpful.
However...if you're a student of academic geeks this is a fascinating case study.
White Mountains? Specifically Cathedral Ledge?
Or maybe Pawtuckaway Forest in NH and it's house sized boulders that are a glacial moraine?
Love your channel btw ❤
LOL yeah, DON'T mention Alamogordo.
Says it is not related to water or ice and proceeds to say how it was deposited by water & evaporation.
Nice. One of the few videos you've done that I've actually been to. The other is Mt. Mazama.
Because of this channel, I think I'm in love with geology now
Selenite and gypsum are the same mineral. Selenite is the crystal form.
Since it's a national park, I don't suppose you can haul a truck load of the sand.
The St. Anthony Sand Dunes in Idaho might be an interesting one, just to compare to White Sands given it's also next to volcanic features.
Is it safer in a windstorm (eg for one's eyes and lungs) than silicate sand?
It hurts like being sandblasted. We have very strong winds here so white sands blows everywhere. Of course it burns your eyes but I don't think its super dangerous like dust storm. I mean its never good to get anything in your lungs not even smoke, but I've never heard of anyone dying from that. The heat will kill you first here if you don't have water and a lot of it.
so as the weather got hotter, and the water was gone that was mans fault also.....
If you're there on a sunny day, you're going to want a pair of sunglasses, even if you're already wearing sunglasses...
It's worse than snow. In the dune field, there isn't even any vegetation to break up the whiteness of the place.
(He didn't mention the park could close for a few hours if they're conducting missile tests, lol...)
can you do surtsey i think it will be a awsome video
Interesting. Cool sand. I like it!👍👍
Lol, had to squeeze in a volcano.
Topic: Great Sand Dunes of Colorado!
I live south of WHITE SANDS in El Paso Tx- I try to visit the park at least once a year! Still have three if those plastic disks for sliding down the dunes!
My internal monologue automatically adds "and mentions what it's future hazards are" to your video intros for non-hazardous things which creates some funny scenarios.
the risk of enjoy visiting too much.
WELL ISNT THIS PLACE A GEOGRAPHICAL ODDITY!?
TWO WEEKS FROM ANYWHERE!
I love that movie!😁
Been there… being immersed in pure white surroundings in the middle of summer makes for a bizarre experience.
You should cover some of the strange geology of Indonesia and the surrounding regions. All sorts of microplates, plate boundaries, and volcanoes available to discuss.
Wow, that is beautiful
If you’re looking to do varied content… could you cover the subterranean Manson crater in Iowa?
Maybe discussing the Hudson Bay around the Belcher Islands? The area looks like a caldera or impact crater, but apparently it is neither - so why does it look like it does?
A quick search can provide what you are looking for. One image search of that area brought an image of the area you describe as the Hudson Bay Arc or Nastapoka Arc. It is not thought to be due to an impact crater at least according to one site..
@@michaeldeierhoi4096 That does not answer my question. It is not an impact crater, the information I have found in my searches are unanimous on that point. Neither is it a caldera, because there are no other traces of volcanism in the area.
My question is: why does it look the way it does?
@@svennoren9047 It is an interesting question. I'm sure a geologist somewhere must have written about it.
Too cool. Grew up in Los Alamos under the care of loving parents from the depression days of Nebraska that were bent on turning there eight kids onto the magic places New Mexico and the grand western states have to offer.
They're on their way there.
I would love to visit this in person.
Very interesting. Thank you.
Now I know how it was formed. Thank you for this video describing the formation of the White Sands.
STS-3 (Space Shuttle) landed at Northrop Strip, White Sands, New Mexico, on 30 March 1982, STS-3 was NASA's third Space Shuttle mission, and was the third mission for the Space Shuttle Columbia. It launched on 22 March 1982, and landed eight days later on 30 March. I was there.
The volcano was active in 3250 BC? Does anybody have pictures of it? You sound rather sure of the date. We know that you cannot accurately date lava flows. Potassium Argon dating is largely discredited. They have dated newly formed solidified lava to be millions of years old using that dating method.
I went there a couple of times when I was stationed at Ft. Bliss in El Paso. It's quite a sight to behold.
my family stopped there every summer in the 60s..I always looked forward to it.
you of course omitted the part about it being such a great part of America's early rocket/ missle program..but..that's another story, I suppose.
My brother in law use to work at White Sands.
His first Air Force assignment was in north east Montana, 10 miles from the Canadian border. He was stationed at a DEW base (Defense Early Warning) he was there to repair the radar, his dad had a RCA tv store. In the mid 50’s, not many people knew about diodes or other electronic pieces.
So he was assigned from the northern border to the southern border.
Hello from north east Montana. 10 miles from the Canadian border.
Hi just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your videos and suggest a topic. I grew up in Oregon and traveled to the south-central part of the state to visit the area around Fort Rock/Silver Lake, it an area with a lot of interesting geology like volcanic tuff ring's, lava tubes, large dry lake beds, and evidence of very early people living in the area. Check it out. Thanks
I have been in the surrounding area of the White Sand Dune National Park, but I have not seen it yet. I would like to visit there someday because it looks like fun. Have you dine a video on the volcano that you mention at the end? I would like to know more about the past and future of the nearby Carrizozo volcano someday.
Thank you for the video and I learned some new things that I did not know about at Sand Dunes, like the last Ice Age, how it was formed, and it's Geology. I love the view of the surrounding area including the Rocky Mountains.
GeologyHub rules!!! I would like to know how did the High Tatras form. The smalest mountain chain in the world. Thanks and keep it Up.
I live in Truth or Consequences, which is due west of White Sands. I've been making an effort to found Off-White Sands NP in order to cash in on tourist money.
I always thought gypsum and selenite are both calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the selenite being more crystalline than the gypsum in general. Your description rather fits the mineral anhydrite, which is plain calcium sulfate or the "anhydrite" of gypsum. Am I missing something here?
Of course you would add a volcano in this non-volcanic related topic lol
Great content by the way, thanks
24°54 N 17°46 E there's a larger black spot with lakes in the middle in northern Africa. I'm curious what is it
It's really fun after the rain. If you walk in the playas (flat areas between the dunes) that collect water, the surface can be hard in some areas, and soft in other places. If you step on a soft place and sink into the gypsum, when you pull your leg out of the mud it looks like you've stepped in a bucket of wallboard compound. And it's just as sticky and difficult to clean off of your leg.
That's a cute story.... except for the fact that the desert is partially if nit entirely the way it is because it is the testing site for the atomic bombs we dropped on Japan and are chemically altered because of the immense heat from the power of Man trying to be God.... "Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds."
This place is awesome I lived Las Cruces when I was a teenager got to go to White Sands State Park only a small area is open to the public the rest is a military base I saw lots of strange animals that were white rabbits lizards Etc because they evolved to camouflage themselves overtime I only got to go there once hiked over a large sand dune and accidentally disrupted a p**** shoot LOL