Medano Creek
by Jon Burch Photography
Title
Medano Creek
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Capture And Enhancement
Description
When you walk on shallow Medano Creek at the base of the Great Sand Dunes, you are walking on water that extends deep below the surface. The dunes sit on top of an aquifer that extends up to a mile below the valley floor. Streams flow on top of the high water table, and most local wetlands are actually the visible top of the aquifer, where it fills in the lowest depressions in the dunes and valley floor.
Instead of flowing into rivers that eventually reach the ocean, streams flow on the valley surface eventually sinking down through the sandy soil primarily into the unconfined aquifer. Because of these "disappearing" streams, and long underground faults around the aquifer, water in the northern half of the San Luis Valley is trapped into a closed basin. The sand dunes rise at the eastern edge of the basin, at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
The flowing arms of Medano Creek on the east and south sides of the dunes, and Sand Creek on the north are the arteries of the Great Sand Dunes. Sand grains blow into the dunes from the valley floor, bouncing up and down over a sea of sand, until they drop into Medano or Sand Creeks. The water in the creeks captures the sand, carrying it back downstream to the valley floor, only to be picked up again by the wind. The wind and water recycling continues, piling the sand to gigantic heights. - USGS
Image of Medano Creek and the Great Sand Dunes in central Colorado copyright 2016 Jon Burch Photography
Uploaded
July 18th, 2016
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Viewed 198 Times - Last Visitor from Wilmington, DE on 03/27/2024 at 12:27 AM
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