logo Web Site           < back   White Sands   next >

close-up of a small plant leaf and grains of gypsum sand at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico

Here's a close-up of a small plant leaf and grains of sand (made of gypsum rather than quartz). Each grain is a water-soluble crystal (originally yellowish) that has been chaffed white by its many wind-blown collisions with other grains.