The Great Sand Dunes National Park
and Preserve has certainly made a name for itself in the Geography world by
being and extremely interesting piece of geographical landscape. As a brief
description the geography of the Dunes is made up of a couple different
geographical elements. The dunes are surrounded by two separate mountain
ranges, the Sange De Cristo Mountain Range and the San Juan Mountain Range
which were created by moving plates beneath the Earth’s surface. In between the
mountain ranges is a large valley. Another geographical element at the dunes is
the Medano Creek which serves as home to a larger hydrology system under the
surface. The actual dunes are formed by specific wind patterns and are made of
sand. There are also various types of dunes. All of these geographical factors
have not only played a role in creating the dunes as we know them today, but
are also responsible for the geographic future of the sand dunes.
Based on the geographical structure
of the sand dunes and my knowledge in geography I can make educated guesses on
what the dunes will look like in the future. In 1,000 years I suspect the dunes
will not look much different than they do now. This is because the wind
patterns seen around the dunes. These patterns balance each other out making
the formation of the dunes rather consistent. Since the dunes have existed we
have not seen many changes, but this is not saying that they do not change.
Scientists have discovered many new things about the dunes even in just the
recent future that proves the dunes do change over time.
In 10,000 years I think we will see
a little bit of change in the Great Sand Dunes. I think that we will see a
growth in the amount of dunes. This will be very slight, but I do think that it
will occur because it is continuously occurring as we speak, slowly, but
definitely. I think this because of the vegetation
that occurs along the dunes. Wind eventually erodes the vegetated dune, which
as discussed in my previous blogs, this natural occurrence creates what are
called parabolic dunes. These parabolic dunes eventually migrate into the main
dune area creating more surface area of dunes for the future.
100,000 years in the future is when
we will most likely see the most change. This is because any geographical process
that occurs is typically a slow process. I believe a lot of vegetation will
occur on the older dunes and that they will remain as they are because of the
vegetation growth because vegetation on the large dunes typically stops them
from migrating. However, there will certainly be more dunes than there are now
because sand constantly is being carried to the dunes via wind and Medano
Creek. Another reason we will not see a lot of major change is because the hydrology
system of the dunes. The hydrology system consists of a high water table
keeping the under layers of the dunes wet, making them more solid and heavy,
keeping them in place.
Although the Great Sand Dunes
definitely change on a daily basis, we as scientists and observers don’t get to
see a lot of this change because it occurs very slowly over time. However change
is a guarantee given the dunes geographical elements such as wind pattern, vegetation,
and hydrology. It seems that change is held within the closed system of the
Great Sand Dunes National Park, but that it will also keep occurring as long as
the dunes exist.
