FASCINATING BEACH DUNES NOW
Beautiful beach dunes are our focus today. They are both powerful and fragile. They are constantly morphing in shape, size, and location. Their landscapes are peaceful visions, sometimes forming dreamlike or even alien scenes. Here are some cool dunes to consider.
Photo: Philippe Labeguerie. The Great Dune of Pyla
When the land is sand, it moves like water. The Great Pyla Dune, for example, moves an average of 4.9 meters per year --- sometimes as much as 10 meters in a given year -- moved and shaped by maritime winds. That’s slow for water, but really fast for land. In fact this dune moves so much, it covers a fresh 8000 square meters of adjacent land each year. It has buried roads, invaded forests, and gobbled villas.
Located in the Arachon Bay Area of France, Pyla is over 100 meters tall -- the tallest in Europe, and 500 meters wide. And, at 2.7 km long, it holds over 60 million cubic meters of sand. It is surrounded on three sides by pine forest. If you climb to the top of Pyla, you can see the Pyranees Mountains on a clear day.
Photo: Patriiick. Lencois Maranheses Dunes.
One of the most fascinating coastal dune systems in the world is that of the Lencois Maranheses Dunes. They are massive, covering over 1000 square kilometers, stretching along 27 miles of coastline and spreading 31 miles inland in the state of Maranhao in northeastern Brazil. They form a huge field of sand mountains, valleys, and basins, which, in rainy season, fill to form lakes.
These aren’t just puddles, mind you. They are proper lakes, with fish and wildlife darting about. And the crazy part is that they disappear every dry season, reappear every rainy season (fullest between July and September), and somehow, the fish thrive! Their eggs are brought from the sea by birds.
Patches of mangroves, deserted beaches, and buritis palms create texture, while the Preguiças River winds through.
Sand, carried by the rivers to their mouths, then whipped back into shape by sea winds and currents, forms a wide span of rippled sculpture. Their name, Lencois Maranheses, means the bedsheets of Maranhao because its formations resemble rumpled sheets.
Photo: Cotaro70s. Tottori Sand Dunes.
Seems odd somehow to come across a camel roaming in the sands of Japan. But they are roaming the Totorri Dunes along the country’s eastern coast. The dunes run about 16 km long and spread about 2 km wide and rise to as high as 90 meters.
The Totorri dunes formed over 100,000 years ago, as volcanic ash from Mt. Daisen settled on the sand of the Sendai-gawa River, and the ocean winds that blew from the rough Sea of Japan formed the dunes over a period of almost 100,000 years.
At times one can see 40-meter-deep basins, 50-meter-tall hills, picturesque patterns formed by the winds called wind ripples, and sand sliding down the surface of the hills like an avalanche. The magnificent beauty is constantly changing and never stops. When you reach the top by lift, you can enjoy a boundless view of sea and sand, a truly spectacular sight.
Photo by: Adam.J.W.C. Cronulla Sand Dunes.
The Cronulla Sand Dunes, in Australia’s Kurnell Peninsula, is the ancestral home of the Gweagal Aborigines. Here, you can find carvings, ceremonial sites, flaked sharpening stones, and ancient middens.
Formed over 15,000 years ago, when sea levels reached their present state, they rise 20-60 meters high, with steep 45 degree slopes.
Sandmining has significantly diminished the Cronulla Dunes and only a few remain in areas such as Connell Hill (near Charlotte Breen Reserve), the Australand site, Botany Cone (in National Park), Calsil Dune and near Boat Harbour. Botany Cove is one of the largest coastal dunes remaining in Sydney.
She-oak, red bloodwood, scribbly gum and smooth-barked apple grow out of Cronulla’s sands in the Kurnell Dune Forest, which is listed as an Endangered Ecological Community under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act.
We found many amazing dunes once we started looking. We’ll be writing more posts about different kinds of dunes later on. Watch for them.
And check out our other Beautiful Beach posts all this week, including stories in Arts/Design,Food/Drink,Mind/Body,Place/Time,Nature/Science, andSoul Impact. And enter this week'sphoto competition. The theme: Beaches (Deadline, August 25th, 2013).