Scientists reveal secrets to Earth’s magnificent desert star dunes, found in Asia, African –– and on Mars

Star dunes, or pyramid dunes, have fascinated historians and captured the imaginations of indigenous people seeking wisdom and meaning. They can be found in Asia, Africa and on Mars and they move around from time to time, rising up to about 1000 feet at their peak. Scientists believe they understand the mechanics of star dunes, by observing a star dune in eastern Morocco called Lala Lallia, meaning ‘highest sacred point’ in local Berber tongue.

The researchers used radar to look inside the dune applying luminescence dating to determine how long Lala Lallia has taken to form, a method that looks at the amount of energy trapped inside the grains of sand. The answer: it started growing about 13,000 years ago, shifted directions and 900 years ago started accumulating roughly 6,400 metric tons of sand annually as wind relentlessly blows sand through the desert.

Read Also: Can you believe the world is running out of sand?

Only about 10% of the world’s sand dunes are star dunes. Driving on sand dunes is a past-time in the Sahara and the Middle East. But Green Prophet’s writer Ajmal bashes dune bashing saying it destroys nature. Trekking by camel or on foot is better, and if you are flexible, watch what you can do on sand dunes below.

“I first encountered star dunes in Namibia 20 years ago, and was instantly amazed at the size of them. I have a vivid memory of the long climb to the top, struggling up very loose sand in the heat of the day,” said geographer Geoff Duller of Aberystwyth University in Wales, co-author of the study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

He told the Deccan Herald:

“I find desert dunes very beautiful,” Duller added. “The sight of the sinuous curves, and the way that the light and shadow changes with the sun mean that they always look different, whether that is in the cool of the morning, the midday sun or near sunset. The different colours of sand in different deserts are also very striking, with yellow, white, red and even black dunes in different parts of the world.”

Earth’s largest star dunes can be found in the the Badain Jaran desert in western China. There are also sand seas in Algeria such as the Grand Erg Oriental and Grand Erg Occidental, and Rub’ al Khali in Saudi Arabia.

Want more on sand? This artist’s work blows back to the sand in Saudi Arabia. 

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Now thanks to global obsessions with concrete icons, fracking and poor resource management, even places such as Saudi Arabia are running out of sand.

Sand, it seems, is the epitome of abundance. There are an estimated seven quintillion grains of sand on earth.

That’s 7000000000000000000, count them! But as with oil and water and Helium, the second most abundant element in the universe, we are consuming sand with the false assumption that a very large number is the same as infinity.

Sand may be inexpensive compared to other natural resources but it is extremely useful, even crucial to certain parts of our modern life. Sand is used to make the glass and concrete used in dams and massive skyscraper construction projects in places such as Dubai and Saudi Arabia. It is also being used in 3D printed structures and other futuristic building designs.

The recent obsession with fracking has also caused a rapid rise in the consumption of this limited resource.

In 2009 Green Prophet reported that the massive construction boom caused a shortage of the high quality desert sand used in construction.

So Bahrain and other Persian gulf countries began to restrict the export of sand. Not long after this, sand was being imported to replenish eroded beaches in places such as Cesarea where man-made structures interfere with the normal inflow of sand from the sea.

Peak sand

And while some desert sands are excellent construction materials, these fine-grained sands tend to blow or erode too much to make for good beach sand. So Saudi Arabia has imported beach sand from as far away as Australia.

According to an article published in Der Spielgel, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) estimates that 40 billion tons of sand are consumed each year, 3/4ths of it in the production of concrete– enough to encircle the earth with a wall 25 meters high.

Fracking requires yet another type of sand. Companies which were previously focused on the relatively small market of sand for golf course have made hundreds of millions of dollars by strip mining places such as the North American pine barrens where enormous flocks of passenger pigeons once lived.

This sand is then used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a process where materials are pumped into the ground at high pressure in order to fracture rock and force the stubborn last few drops of oil out of geologic deposits.

Sand is also being used to increase and decrease the amount of territory belonging to certain countries. Singapore has reportedly imported enough sand from Indonesia and Vietnam to increase its area by more than 20% over the past 50 years.

Hong Kong may be doing the same and China is pouring sand into South China Sea in order to create new territory in the disputed Spratly Islands. Poorer countries such as Cape Verde are smuggling their sandy shorelines away to richer countries in a practice that could complicate already difficult political situations in the Middle East.

So the next time you visit a sandy beach or desert, be sure to dump the sand out of your shoes before you go home.

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Drop some sand under a high-definition, three-dimensional light microscope and you’ll never look at a beach the same way again. Magnified 250 times, the tiny grains are shockingly gorgeous! Brilliantly colored or crystal-clear, the origins of each speck emerges; spiral shell fragments, petrified corals, gem-like minerals or crumbs of volcanic rock.

Photographer and scientist Gary Greenberg has devoted his life to revealing the secret beauty of nature. “My real passion in life is to explore the intersection between art and science”, he says in a TedX talk.

Creating the images is a painstakingly lengthy process, first photographing the grains from several angles then combining them into a single composition using computer software.

“It is incredible to think when you are walking on the beach you are standing on these tiny treasures,” says Greenberg.

Greenberg began his career as photographer and filmmaker, then went on to earn a doctorate in biomedical research. He’s also an inventor of specialized microscopes, for which he was issued eighteen US patents. And on top of it all, he’s authored a book called A Grain of Sand Nature’s Secret Wonder, which features these images and many more.

“Each grain of sand represents a moment captured in time.  It is somewhere on its path from its creation to erosion and recycling back into the earth. When we walk along the beach we are strolling atop millions of years of biological and geological history,”  he says on his website.

You can order prints of Greenberg’s astounding images on his website (link here).

Too much eye candy? Need a factual takeaway?  People who collect sand as a hobby are known as arenophiles. Those who study foraminifera, also called forams are heros. They can help researchers figure out if a desalination plant is releasing heavy metals. 

The post Forams up close reveal jewels at the beach appeared first on Green Prophet.

My brain inextricably links sand to sea thanks to 25 summers spent on a New Jersey barrier island.

Middle East experiences have me now connecting the grainy stuff to locations and memories largely devoid of water, such as Wadi Rum’s white desert, the crumbled limestone skirting Jerash’s ruins,  and Petra’s pulverized sandstone – a powderlike coppery red.

Dune Jewelry Design combines sterling silver with sand from your favorite beach, desert, golf course or ancient ruin to create one-of-a-kind jewelry that links to specific memories. The designs are simple, modern, and clean.

Self-taught jewelry designer Holly Daniels Christensen stocks sand from over 700 locations world-wide, or send her your own sand for a fully customized piece.  A drop-down menu on her website lets you scan her granular library:  she’s got samples from Morocco, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.

Christensen is a native Cape Codder and direct descendant of the Cape’s Nauset (Wampanoag) Indian tribe.  Deeply rooted in that Massachusetts beachline, she was struck  by the observation that many of us have a  powerful emotional connection with a specific patch of sand: special memories or adventures that took place on sandy spots spanning the globe.   Her company credo is “Live for the moment, then take it with you.”

That visceral connection isn’t limited to surfside experiences. Sand is everywhere, and her artifacts may hold particular appeal in the Middle East. I met a caver who saved sand from an Omani expedition, sourced from the insides of his shoes.  A friend has a small bowl of Abu Dhabi Corniche: she was sitting on the strand when she got the call confirming she was pregnant. Surely you’ve got your own sandy story?

Not into personal adornment?  Then check out Beachsand Snowflakes™, created in 2003 by another Cape Cod artist, Kellie Quinn.  She grew curious about the concept of sand as an art medium while building sandcastles with her children.  Through trial and error, she created a unique binding agent to congeal the sand into final form, as well as a special setting procedure to harden it. The oddity of snowflakes made from beach sand is appealing:  an ornament that could be displayed during the winter to recall happy summer days at the beach, on a desert eco-tour, or on a Bedouin camping trip.

As with Dune Jewelry, the ornaments are made with sand from your favorite places (discounts available if you send in your own).  Quinn’s sand stash includes samples from Oman and the West Sahara. Each snowflake has unique color and texture, displaying natural variations in the grains of sand from its beach of origin. Snowflakes, approximately 3 inches in diameter, appear as seamless and delicate as the sand itself, yet are capable of maintaining its structural integrity over time.

There’s a charitable element to these small businesses: Dune has partnered with non-profit  HOPE for Ariang Foundation and Le Moyne College (Syracuse, New York) to introduce the HOPE Collection. Each unique design supports construction and maintenance of educational facilities and programs in the Ariang Community of South Sudan.

This special line of jewelry is handmade with pieces of an actual brick used to build the Ariang Primary School.

Gabriel Bol Deng, a 2007 Le Moyne College alumni, and former Sudanese “lost boy”, is Founder and Executive Director of HOPE for Ariang Foundation.  Under Gabriel’s leadership, the people of Ariang hand made more than 300,000 bricks to build the primary school for their children.

His parents were killed during South Sudan’s civil war, and 10 year old Gabriel fled Ariang to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. It was in the camps that Gabriel realized the importance of reading and writing: he learned English by writing on cardboard with charcoal. After university, he established the non-profit to provide an opportunity for children of Ariang to be properly schooled. Educating the children is key to achieving lasting peace and sustainable development in the region. Christensen says, “We hope when you wear this small piece of Ariang School you will be reminded of the students who are learning because of your generous contribution.”

Enterprises like Dune Jewelry Design and Beachsand Snowflakes™ tick all the right boxes for sustainable gifting: reasonably priced quality products, cued in to the environment, and with a bit of a give-back factor.

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