Location: Otero Country, NM Map
Area: 581 km²
Info: (575) 679- 2599
Open: 8am- 7pm daily (5pm in winter months)
Closed: Dec. 25
Official site
White Sands National Park is a national park-type preserve about 16 miles southwest of Alamogordo, New Mexico, at the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert. In a wide valley - the Tularosa Basin - it includes the southern part of a 712 km² large gypsum field on which huge dunes have formed.
The gypsum that makes up the White Sands formed the bottom of a shallow sea that covered this region 250 million years ago. Eventually, sedimentary rock enriched with marine deposits emerged, 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, forming the Tularosa Basin. The remaining edges of the sagging dome formation today form the San Andres Mountains and Sacramento Mountains.
White Sands
Gypsum (calcium sulfate dihydrate) is a
mineral found high up in the San Andres and Sacramento Mountains. Due to
the uplift of the mountains, it was loosened from the rocks over time by
snow and rain. It then entered the Tularosa Basin and was successively
deposited there as sediment. Rivers would normally carry this to the
sea, but since there is no outflow 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 shattered into grains, which were piled up by the wind into huge
white dusty dunes.
One of the valley's lowest points is a large
dry lake that periodically fills with water: Lake Lucero. As soon as its
water evaporates again, dissolved gypsum collects on the surface.
During the last Ice Age there was even more gypsum deposits as a
large lake - Lake Otero - covered most of the valley. It dried up and
left a large alkaline plain.
During periods of wet weather, when the water slowly
evaporates, the gypsum deposits at the bottom of the dry lake in a
crystalline form known as selenite. Along the shores of Lake Lucero and
the Alkali Plains, selenite crystals, some up to a meter long, cover the
ground and form layers. The forces of nature, cold and heat, wet and
dry, eventually break the crystals into small sand particles light
enough to be blown away by the wind.
Strong winds blow across the
dry lake, picking up gypsum particles and carrying them with them. As
the sand grains pile up into dunes, they bounce against the gently
rolling, windward side of the dune, producing small ripples on its
surface. On the steep crest of the dune, the sand builds up until
gravity causes it to slide; this causes the dune to move forward.
There are four different types of dunes in White Sands:
Domed
Dunes: The first dunes to form upwind of Lake Lucero are low sand hills
that move up to ten meters annually.
Barkand Dunes: Crescent-shaped
dunes form in areas with strong winds that bring limited new sand with
them.
Diagonal Dunes: In areas that are adequately supplied with
sand, crescent-shaped dunes join together to form long mountain ranges
of sand.
Parabolic Dunes: Along the edges of the dune field, plants
anchor the foothills of the crescent-shaped dunes to each other,
inverting their shape.
Even plants and animals well equipped for life in the
desert have trouble surviving in the changing world of the dunes. A
small number of plants have changed and adapted and are thus able to
avoid being constantly buried under sand. The Soap Tree Yucca lengthens
its stem so its leaves are always above the sand, growing up to 30cm 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
emerge at night. In the morning you can find traces of rodents, rabbits,
foxes, coyotes, porcupine 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 evolved a white camouflage color that
protects them from their predators.
Starting at 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 trails. In
summer, the rangers also offer guided tours. However, about once or
twice a week, the park is closed for safety reasons when missile tests
are being conducted at the White Sands Missile Range surrounding the
park.
The sanctuary 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 turned
into a national park.
In 2009, Homo sapiens footprints were discovered in a dried-up lake bed. The traces could be indirectly dated to an age of 23,000 years via seeds of the aquatic plant Ruppia cirrhosa in the imprints. That would be near the peak of the last glacial period, almost 10,000 years earlier than previous confirmed dates of humans in North America. In 2022, the dating was questioned because comparative samples indicate that old 14C was deposited in the plant parts with the water at the site. A falsification of the dates by about 7000-10,000 years to an estimated 13,350 cal yr BP due to this effect cannot be ruled out.