New Mexico - White Sands (2)

Dateca. 1961

MediumPaper and Ink

Dimensions5 × 8 in. (12.7 × 20.3 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LineAlbuquerque Museum, gift of Caroline Bowdish

Object numberPA2021.049.231

Description4. contd. gypsym deposits. The dissolved gypsum is carried into lake Luvero, lowest part of the basin. There the warm sun & dry winds evaporate the lake, leaving a gypsum-crystal encrusted marsh.

5. Weathering disintegrates the gypsum crystals into sand size, glistening white grains, which are swept away by the wind & added to nearby embryonic san dunes.

6. White Sands is a place of extreme & often rapidly changing environmenal conditions, capable of supporting only specialized life forms. When Dr. Gilbert Grosvenor, president of National Neographic Society, visited the sands, he spoke of them as one the great Natural Wonders of the World, as interesting as Carlsbad Caverns and the Grand Canyon.

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