After some research on the great
sand dunes I found out it is a desert even though it sometimes can get perception
of 10 inches or more. So I decided to visit it. It is located between 2 mountain
ranges the San Juan Mountains and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
It is
very interesting to see because it can be very dry in the valley where the
dunes are but to both sides are mountains they have vegetation and receive a
lot of rainfall. The source of the sand is from winds the nearby mountain
streams where the deposits are picked up by a south wind towards the dunes.
This desert is located within the continental interior it’s in Colorado. What I
found interesting was that the sand dunes don’t move to much due to a wind coming
from the north that moves the sound back to its place over time. The winds
counter each other which bring the sand dunes back to the same place overtime.
The sediments I noticed were darker than most sand id expect in a desert.
From
what I found while there and later research I couldn’t tell if it could be in a
rain shadow because there were mountains on both sides of the desert.
"Sand Sea Wonders" National Park and Preserve, National Park Service.
https://www.handsontheland.org/grsa/resources/geo_brief.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment