White Sands National Monument

Must-see attractions nearby: New Mexico Museum of Space History Alamogordo Visitor Center Toy Train Depot Tularosa Basin Historical Society Museum Sertoma Motorplex Family Recreation Center Flickinger Center for the Performing Arts

Only highly adapted forms of life can stand up to the extreme conditions of this arid and constantly changing habitat. Some plants, for example, have developed roots over 30ft/10m long in order to gain a foothold in the traveling dunes.

Origins

Some 250 million years ago this area was occupied by a shallow sea on the bottom of which gypsum was deposited. The present hills were created by the upthrusting and folding of marine sediments. A large section of the earth's crust fell in and the Tularosa basin was formed. In the hills round the basin the deposits of gypsum were dissolved by rain, and water with a high gypsum content gathered in the Tularosa basin, which had no outlet, and formed a lake, now known as Lake Lucero. The lake repeatedly dried out and the gypsum crystallized; and finally small grains of gypsum were blown by wind into the remarkable dunes we see today, which are now under protection as a National Monument.