Kelso Dunes
Encyclopedia
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
deposits in the Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
. The region is protected by the Mojave National Preserve
Mojave National Preserve
Mojave National Preserve is located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, USA, between Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The preserve was established October 31, 1994 with the passage of the California Desert Protection Act by the US Congress...
and is located near the town of Baker
Baker, California
Baker is a census-designated place located in San Bernardino County, California, USA. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 735.Baker was founded as a station on the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad in 1908,...
, San Bernardino County
San Bernardino County, California
San Bernardino County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 2,035,210, up from 1,709,434 as of the 2000 census...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and the Preserve Visitor Center
Kelso Depot, Restaurant and Employees Hotel
The Kelso Depot, Restaurant and Employees Hotel or Kelso Depot, now also the Mojave National Preserve Visitors Center, is located in the Mojave Desert within the National Park Service Mojave National Preserve, on Kelbaker Road in Kelso, California, between Baker and Interstate 15 to the north and...
. The dune
Dune
In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...
field covers 45 square miles (116.5 km²) and includes migrating dunes, vegetation-stabilized
Sand dune stabilization
Sand dunes are common features of shoreline and desert environments. Dunes provide habitat for highly specialized plants and animals, including rare and endangered species. They can protect beaches from erosion and recruit sand to eroded beaches. Dunes are threatened by human activity, both...
dunes, sand sheet
Sand sheet
Sand sheets are flat, gently undulating plots of sand surfaced by grains that may be too large for saltation. They form approximately 40 percent of aeolian depositional surfaces....
s, and sand ramps. The tallest dunes rise up to 650 feet (198.1 m) above the surrounding terrain.
Geology
The dunes are composed predominantly of light-colored quartzQuartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
and feldspar
Feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust....
, most likely eroded
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
from the granitics
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
of the San Bernardino Mountains
San Bernardino Mountains
The San Bernardino Mountains are a short transverse mountain range north and east of San Bernardino in Southern California in the United States. The mountains run for approximately 60 miles east-west on the southern edge of the Mojave Desert in southwestern San Bernardino County, north of the...
to the southwest. Magnetite
Magnetite
Magnetite is a ferrimagnetic mineral with chemical formula Fe3O4, one of several iron oxides and a member of the spinel group. The chemical IUPAC name is iron oxide and the common chemical name is ferrous-ferric oxide. The formula for magnetite may also be written as FeO·Fe2O3, which is one part...
and amphibole
Amphibole
Amphibole is the name of an important group of generally dark-colored rock-forming inosilicate minerals, composed of double chain tetrahedra, linked at the vertices and generally containing ions of iron and/or magnesium in their structures.-Mineralogy:...
can also be found, often accumulating at the dune crests.
Kelso Dunes represent part of a much larger sand transport system, which includes the nearby Devils Playground
Devils Playground
The Devils Playground is a large sandy region in the Mojave Desert in the state of California in the United States. Dunes and salt flats stretch for approximately 40 miles in a generally northwest-southeasterly direction in the Mojave National Preserve. The Cronese Mountains are located at its...
region. The composition and morphology of the sand grains indicate that most originated from the Mojave River
Mojave River
The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California. The river is notable as most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the time, with the exception of the headwaters and several...
sink near Afton Canyon, which lies to the west of the dunes' current location. The sand has accumulated at the southeastern end of the Soda Lake-Kelso basin, where the Granite Mountains
Granite Mountains (California)
The Granite Mountains is a small mountain range in San Bernardino County, California, USA, located in the Mojave Desert.They are in the Mojave National Preserve, in the National Park Service system.-Geography:...
and Providence Mountains
Providence Mountains
The Providence Mountains are found in the eastern Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, U.S. The range reaches an elevation of at Edgar Peak and is home to the Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve in the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area, and the Mojave National...
form a barrier to prevailing winds. At present, only the area around the Mojave River sink and the westernmost parts of Devil's Playground are receiving new sand through this system; sand is no longer accumulating at Kelso Dunes itself.
Geography
The Kelso Dunes are composed of five stacked sets of dunes, each set corresponding to a period of climate change over the last 25,000 years. During dry climate episodes, a decrease in stabilizing vegetation exposed surface sand to wind erosionErosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
, which ultimately brought the sand to the dunes (most of the eastern part of the Kelso dunes was formed when nearby Soda Lake and Silver Lake dried into their current playa
Dry lake
Dry lakes are ephemeral lakebeds, or a remnant of an endorheic lake. Such flats consist of fine-grained sediments infused with alkali salts. Dry lakes are also referred to as alkali flats, sabkhas, playas or mud flats...
s). However, once the sand was emplaced, vegetation began to grow, locking much of it into place.
The Kelso Dunes are also notable for the phenomenon known as singing sand
Singing sand
Singing sand, whistling sand or barking sand is sand that produces sound. The sound emission may be caused by wind passing over dunes or by walking on the sand.Certain conditions have to come together to create singing sand:...
, or "booming dunes". Enthusiasts typically climb to the top of the dunes and slide down slowly, generating a low-frequency rumble that can be both felt and heard. This effect has also been noted at the Eureka Dunes
Eureka Valley Sand Dunes
The Eureka Valley Sand Dunes are located in the southern part of Eureka Valley, in northern Inyo County in eastern California, in the southwestern United States...
in California, Sand Mountain
Sand Mountain (Nevada)
Sand Mountain is a Singing sand dune east of Fallon, Nevada along U.S. Route 50. The dune is two miles long and high.It lies on the edge of the ancient Lake Lahontan, that for the most part dried up 9,000 years ago. Sand Mountain Recreation Area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is...
in Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, and the Booming Dunes in the Namib Desert
Namib Desert
The Namib Desert is a desert in Namibia and southwest Angola that forms part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, the largest game reserve in Africa. The name "Namib" is of Nama origin and means "vast place"...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. The booming is much more pronounced when the dunes are extremely dry.
Access
Kelso Dunes are closed to off-road vehicles, but are open to hikers. The trailhead is at the end of a three mile (5 km) graded dirt road splitting from Kelbaker Road. This road can be accessed from both Interstate 15Interstate 15 in California
In the U.S. state of California, Interstate 15 is a major north–south route through the San Bernardino, Riverside, and San Diego Counties, and it has a length of in the state. It is a major thoroughfare for traffic between Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as points beyond...
(at Baker) and Interstate 40
Interstate 40
Interstate 40 is the third-longest major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States, after I-90 and I-80. Its western end is at Interstate 15 in Barstow, California; its eastern end is at a concurrency of U.S. Route 117 and North Carolina Highway 132 in Wilmington, North Carolina...
(east of Barstow
Barstow, California
Barstow is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The population was 22,639 at the 2010 census, up from 21,119 at the 2000 census. Barstow is located north of San Bernardino....
). The dunes themselves lay just south of the Kelso
Kelso, California
Kelso is a ghost town and defunct railroad depot in the Mojave National Preserve in San Bernardino County, California, USA. It was named after a railroad worker who won a contest to have the town named after him...
ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
and the Park's Visitor Center located in the historic Kelso Depot, Restaurant and Employees Hotel
Kelso Depot, Restaurant and Employees Hotel
The Kelso Depot, Restaurant and Employees Hotel or Kelso Depot, now also the Mojave National Preserve Visitors Center, is located in the Mojave Desert within the National Park Service Mojave National Preserve, on Kelbaker Road in Kelso, California, between Baker and Interstate 15 to the north and...
.
Endemic Species
Like many southern California dune systems, the Kelso dunes have a number of endemicEndemic (ecology)
Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...
animal species. The list includes at least ten species of insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
, such as the Kelso Dunes Giant Sand Treader (Macrobaenetes kelsoensis, a species of camel cricket), the Kelso Dunes Jerusalem Cricket (Ammopelmatus kelsoensis, a stenopelmatid), a giant Mydid fly (Rhaphiomidas tarsalis
Rhaphiomidas
The mydid fly genus Rhaphiomidas contains fewer than 30 species/subspecies, all of them occurring in the desert regions of the southwestern United States and adjacent portions of northwestern Mexico...
), and the Kelso Dunes Shieldback Katydid (Eremopedes kelsoensis), as well as several rare native bee
Bee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
s, wasp
Wasp
The term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their...
s, and beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
s. Although not strictly endemic, several plant and reptile
Reptile
Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...
species are rare outside of these dunes. One example is the Mojave Fringe-toed Lizard
Fringe-toed lizard
Fringe-toed lizards are reptiles of the genus Uma in the family Phrynosomatidae. They are adapted for life in sandy deserts.-Description:...
(Uma scoparia), which is specialized in its ability to "swim" under sand.
See also
- Kelso, CaliforniaKelso, CaliforniaKelso is a ghost town and defunct railroad depot in the Mojave National Preserve in San Bernardino County, California, USA. It was named after a railroad worker who won a contest to have the town named after him...
- Amboy CraterAmboy CraterAmboy Crater and Lava Field is an extinct North American cinder cone type of volcano that rises above a lava field in southern California. They are located in the Mojave Desert equidistant and about between Barstow to the west and Needles to the east, and southwest of historic U.S. Route 66, in...
- Mojave DesertMojave DesertThe Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
Category: Mojave National Preserve
Category: Protected areas of the Mojave Desert
External links
- Official Mojave National Preserve website
- Kelso Depot Visitors Center
- Photo tour of Mojave National Preserve, from USGS
- Mojave National Preserve travel guide from Wikitravel
- Afton Canyon Natural Area website
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