Arid Landforms

Arid lands are noted for several characteristics…

1. Slow chemical weathering

2. Rapid erosion (No vegetation cover)

3. Angular topographic features

Hess 10th ed, p 425

Angular landforms of arid regions

Boron open pit mining: an old desert playa deposit that concentrated borate minerals.

Death Valley alluvial fan

Owens Valley alluvial fans

Rancho Cucamonga alluvial fans

Allen Ave Pasadena

Lowe Granodiorite boulder

Lowe Granodiorite

A wall at the Mt. Lowe Hotel above Altadena

Sand Mt. south of Fallon, NV

Great Sand Dunes National Monument in Colorado

(On the East side of the San Luis Valley)

Dumont Dunes Mojave Desert

White Sands NM Sand of a different sort! …Gypsum sand!

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

From the air the White Sands basin looks like this.

The white sand is produced from the erosion of gypsum crystals (selenite) like these.

There are three fossil deserts recorded in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata of the Colorado Plateau.

The Coconino Sandstone of the Grand Canyon

Fossil wind blown sand dunes in the Coconino Sandstone of the Grand Canyon

Wingate Sandstone (Capital Reef Nat’l Park)

Granddaddy of fossil deserts… The Navajo Sandstone

The Great White Throne, Zion Nat’l Park, Utah

Fossil sand dune of Zion Nat’l Park

Plateau

Mesa

Butte

Butte