Alabaster and Blue

Few places on earth provide the otherworldy feeling you get when hiking through these dunes of pure white sand. White Sands is located in the Tularosa Basin in the Chihuanan Desert in southern New Mexico. This basin is unique because it is completely enclosed, not allowing water to flow out of it. The pure white sand that makes up the dunes is pure gypsum. Gypsum is almost never seen in the form of sand because it's water soluble. Usually it will disolve in the rain and be carried out to sea. But in the Tularosa Basin the gypsum that comes from the surrounding mountains flows into the basin with the water, where it gets trapped, eventually sinking into the ground or evaporating, leaving behind large gypsum crystals called selenite. Eventually weather and erosion breaks up the selenite crystals in the basin and the prevailing winds transport the gypsum sand to the dune field. It is this rare combination of ingredients that result in this amazingly beautiful and rare place. White Sands is the largest gypsum dunefield in the world. 

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