Samalayuca Dunes - Composition and Creation of The Dune Fields

Composition and Creation of The Dune Fields

The white to tan sands of the dune fields are almost pure silica. On average, the sand contains 90-95% quartz and 5-10% mixed rock grains.

The particle shapes are nodular and spheroid. they were formed by airflow erosion of rocks that created small fragments that were then carried away by the wind, to be deposited in natural land depressions. Another factor assisting in the formation of the dunes is the abrupt changes of temperature that exist in the desert, which assisted in the breaking up of surface rock into sand grains.

Read more about this topic:  Samalayuca Dunes

Famous quotes containing the words composition, creation and/or fields:

    Pushkin’s composition is first of all and above all a phenomenon of style, and it is from this flowered rim that I have surveyed its seep of Arcadian country, the serpentine gleam of its imported brooks, the miniature blizzards imprisoned in round crystal, and the many-hued levels of literary parody blending in the melting distance.
    Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)

    Since we are assured that the all-wise Creator has observed the most exact proportions of number, weight and measure in the make of all things, the most likely way therefore to get any insight into the nature of those parts of the Creation which come within our observation must in all reason be to number, weigh and measure.
    Stephen Hales (1677–1761)

    Luxurious Man, to bring his Vice in use,
    Did after him the World seduce:
    And from the fields the Flow’rs and Plants allure,
    Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)