During my trip that ended Monday, I saw lots of cool things in the Mojave Desert. But the coolest was the afternoon I spent at the Kelso Dunes, one of the world's rare sites of booming sands. It was well worth the trudge up 100 meters of the purest fine sand to stand, panting, on the crest. The views of the surrounding ranges and playas were magnificent, and luckily it was not a windy day. But my mission was to find a good dune face on the lee side, resting at its angle of repose, and push sand down it. I knew I was on the right track when each step in the loose sand resulted in a flatulent "voot" sound. I could sense that the energy of a steady stream of sand would start interacting with the dune, like a bow on a violin string. Sure enough, once I got a good cascade going I could feel a reverberation begin, and within a minute the dune face began to emit a ringing baritone hum. This was never on my geologic life list—actually I don't have one, but maybe it's time to draw one up, because making a dune boom definitely belongs on it. (Here's some background on booming sand and other facets of this fine sediment.)
Kelso Dunes — Geology Guide photo
Comments
Neat that you got to experience a booming dune. And thanks for adding to your sand dune links. The new paper was a little heavy on the math and symbols, but said that booming isn’t a function of grain size (without ruling out sorting?). The description of the wave generating features and layering of the dunes left me a little confused, however. (Maybe I’ll have some more coffee!)
I got to experience this hum and vibration on the east side of Big Dune, NW of Las Vegas. I didn’t know about this phenomenon prior, and later described it to a coworker who didn’t believe me. Another coworker popped in and said, “No, it’s true. I did it at White Sands!”
I’m a 64 year old who grew up in the 40s and 50s in Northern Indiana, site of the now known as the Indiana Dunes National Shore. I don’t remember hearing any booms but I do remember my mom and others talk about the “booming sands” near a place in the park known as “the big blowout.” As far as sandboarding, it’s not a new sport. We sandboarded in Indiana in the mid-60s at what was then the Indiana Dunes State Park.