#gypsum sand

[lockvogel]

Have a great weekend, everyone 😊!

Sunset in White Sands National Park, New Mexico

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

"It's hopeless! Every man who has gone in is either too large to fit down the squeeze or they completely lose their nerve and turn tail!"

"Don't despair, we'll get him out. We just need someone small, tough, and with no sense of self preservation."

A caver is stuck down a gypsum cave and has sparked a media frenzy. Tintin's editor sends him to America to get in on the story, but Tintin quickly discovers that while the attention the story garnered might have sent more help the caver's way, the disruptive crowds, moneyed interests and media circus might have only aided the cave's endeavour in holding its prisoner captive.

[geologyin-blog]

Desert rose is a natural intricate rose-like formation of crystal clusters of gypsum or baryte, which include abundant sand grains.

Photo: stone_life777

ストーンライフ 石生活

[desert-love]

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Yesterday, while my cockatiels were figuring out the mechanism that unlocks their cage door, I managed to bring a cousin of Secernosaurus to a certain freaky kind of desert…

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Photo: Mitch Warnick (2022)

* * * *

Rising from the heart of the Tularosa Basin is one of the world's great natural wonders — the glistening white sands of New Mexico. U.S. Department of the Interior: At White Sands National Park, great wave-like gypsum dunes cover nearly 300 square miles of desert. The sand is soft and cool under your feet and provides a beautiful contrast to the bright blue sky. The dunes are ever-changing, growing, cresting, but constantly advancing. One of the best ways to experience the park is sand sledding, a popular activity and great fun for children and adults alike.

[Scott Horton]

* * * *

“Despair is paralysis. It robs us of agency. It blinds us to our own power and the power of the earth… Restoration is a powerful antidote to despair. Restoration offers concrete means by which humans can once again enter into positive, creative relationship with the more-than-human world, meeting responsibilities that are simultaneously material and spiritual. ... Restoration is imperative for healing the earth, but reciprocity is imperative for long-lasting, successful restoration. Like other mindful practices, ecological restoration can be viewed as an act of reciprocity in which humans exercise their caregiving responsibility for the ecosystems that sustain them. We restore the land, and the land restores us.”

― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

[thorsenmark]

Any Excuse to Visit White Sands National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A lone yucca plant I came across while walking the Dune Life Nature Trail in White Sands National Park. I decided to take advantage of the open area around that yucca plant to more highlight it with the white sands present.

[loverofpiggies]

Hi! Been a while since I've been on tumblr. Super happy to see you get back into comic making!! Could you describe the world of The Vulture? I wanna see if I can convert an old OC to fit the world (as a corrupter-master pair) but I have NO idea what would need to change about them (They're from a fantasy world that got blown up and now live on an asteroid in space. I imagine a lot would have to change)

Well hi there!!! Firstly thank you SO much, I'm so glad to be back making comics too!!!

Now I've been brainstorming a lot about the Corrupters, and I technically have two separate paths I'm considering for them. Right now most of them are still a mystery, besides the fact that Corrupters were created by one of the gods of this world. I think I also have it ironed out, that they're also all made from gypsum sand, which is why their skin is pure white. I'm taking a lot of inspiration from New Mexico landscapes for the story, so the world they inhabit is essentially a dying desert/mesa biome world. (Google White Sands National Park to check out gypsum sand dunes, they're *awesome*)

What powers each Corrupter is capable of, I'm not completely certain either. I'm not sure whether they should all have powers extremely similar to Mirror, or extremely different from him. I know for a fact if a Corrupter finds a way to break their chains and become free, or if a Corrupter becomes too powerful, they can gain wildly different abilities, on top of their bodies just sort of changing. Almost becoming sorta slenderman esque. Supertall doll-like monstrosities just sounds creepy and fun to draw. Kinda like the doll devil from chainsaw man, since the Corrupters are also sorta supposed to emulate antique porcelain dolls, too.

The world is also a very religious one, where the gods directly intervene in people's lives, and reincarnation is a fact of life. Right now I'm playing with the idea that becoming a Corrupter is a punishment for a soul that was cruel or violent in their past life. The god doing this particular punishment reincarnation might also just, pick a soul they think would be interesting as a Corrupter as well. Sometimes Corrupters remember their past lives, sometimes they don't.

Remember this is all SUPER early brainstorming still so this can all still change!! But I suspect the gypsum sand, and doll devil nightmare fuel ideas are probably sticking until the end.

[theoldbone]

Part 2 of the UV reactives

Chkalovite, Tugtupite, Kvanefjeld, Greenland, photo by Daniel Montero

Ussingite, Sodalite, Leucophanite, Tugtupite, Tunulliarfik Fjord, Greenland, photo by Daniel Montero

Calcite, Fluorite, Willemnite, Aragonite, Purple Passion Mine, USA, photo by Daniel Montero

Calcite, Potosi Mine, Mexico, photo by Rob Lavinsky

Quartz, Opal, Montana Aserrada, Spain, photo by Volker Betz

Calcite, Fluorite, Pure Potential Mine, USA, Photo by Christopher Clemens

Petroleum, Quartz, Pakistan, photo by Harald K Andersen

Rabbittite, Barbora Adit, Czech Republic, photo by Charles D Young

Gypsum, Shelford Sand Pit, UK, photo by Kaegen Lau

Petrified Wood, CA, USA, photo by Nicholas Rondilone

Plumbogummite, Pyromorphite, Yangshuo Mine, China, photo by Christopher Clemens

[artechoceneexplorer]

The Artechocene World: The Ourean Mountains

39 million years after our era, the Artechocene is a very different time in many aspects, mainly in its geography. As the movement of the tectonic plates has resulted in drastic changes to the landscape of many areas, and in nowhere is it more evident than in the former basin of the Mediterranean Sea, now pushed up to form one of the biggest mountain ranges in earth, the Ourean Mountains.

It is a region of gradients and extremes, that hosts an incredible biodiversity hotspot thanks to a plethora of microclimates spread across its vast extension. It is bordered on the north by the European region and the Atlantic Ocean, which brings rain and covers the northern slopes in temperate rainforests, temperate open forests and meadows. To the south, it is bordered by the largest expanse of sand on earth, the Sahara desert, which brings dust that can act as fertilizer, but without a drop of water, which forces organisms here to adapt to its incredibly harsh conditions, and so the southern slopes are superficially bare, rocky with sparse vegetation, but with unique ecosystems taking advantage of microclimates and phreatic deposits spread around its geography.

Some notable features of the geography of this extensive range that contribute to its biodiversity include:

Iberia:

The Iberian Cape region is surprisingly similar to its modern counterpart, an incredibly mountainous region, with wet temperate rainforests covering the northern areas, and getting progressively drier towards the interior plateaus and Souther coasts, with a significant difference that now the former Mediterranean coast is comprised of high peaks all along it.

It is now also because of that even more isolated, bordered by high mountain ranges that limit the fauna and flora that can disperse there. This isolation and the gradient of environments found alongside it have resulted in a very particularly high biodiversity within the European region.

La Salà Salt Plains:

These salt plains are probably the largest expanse of salt on earth, resulting in a rift forming in the Liguro-Provencal and Algero-Balearic basins, and that allowed these basins full of salt deposits and brine to rise up and stay extended, not be crushed by the formation of the Ourean mountains. And despite the fact that its activity has slowed and its extension is shrinking, it's still a vast, mostly empty desert of salt littered with rocks from the emerging rift and enormous salt lakes from the brine deposits below. Occasionally, regions of it receive water via snowmelt from the higher peaks around, creating a reflective blanket as far as the eye can see.

The Abominharenas:

This area of the central interior basins of the Ourean mountains are amongst if not the most inhospitable places on Earth. Temperatures on the lowest basins can reach well over 60°C in the summer days, while reaching to well below freezing during the night, especially in the winter. Some places have not seen a drop of rain in centuries, and the few water that can be found is in the form of hypersaline pools or underwater deposits. Despite these conditions, a few resilient organisms are able to survive and thrive in this hellscape.

These extraordinarily hostile conditions, combined with the plentiful deposits of deposits of evaporites like salt and gypsum, are not ideal for life, but allow for the formation of an incredibly rare landscape, gypsum dunes. The lack of water allows these minerals to not be diluted by rain, but be eroded by the wind and accumulated inside the basins, forming vast expanses of blindingly white, scorching hot dunes.

Pannonia Lake:

North of the Alpine region of the mountains, the plentiful rain has accumulated in the Pannonian basin, forming a large freshwater lake. It is quite unique among the rest of European freshwater lakes, as it has no outflows and is hardly connected to the rest of the waterways. And so, despite its size compared to other lakes and inland seas of Eurasia, it has developed its own very unique ecosystem descendant of the few riverine fish and invertebrates that entered its waters when it formed.

Mediterranean Ridge:

The Mediterranean Ridge is a former undersea mountain range turned into one of the most significant ranges in the ourean mountains, being one of the main contributors to the isolation of the interior basins of the Abominharenas, and to the blocking of the Nile River to drain into said basins.

Like other ranges in the ourean mountains, it is rich in soluble rocks like limestone, which means the enormous mountains are also filled with kilometres and kilometers of caves, often with large deposits of water of various salinities depending on the region. This is actually the place where most of the biodiversity lies in the regions which have a more inhospitable surface environment, as the caves provide a place sheltered from surface conditions, and with plenty of nutrients in a lot of cases thanks to various communities of lithotrophic microbes that feed on inorganic substances and form the base of a food chain inside them without the need of light.

Aegeo-Anatolian Plateau:

The many small basins within the Aegean sea allowed for a very unique landscape to appear once the region rose up high to fuse with the Anatolian region in a single plateau. The region is sprinkled with thousands of small alpine lakes, with varying salinities depending on their distance to the Black Sea and how much rain they receive or outflow they suffer. This has resulted in this being a popular passing area for many birds migration over the range, as well as a lot of diversity in aquatic species, which a lot of species that are endemic to a single or a small group of lakes.

Osiris Basin:

An enormous Garden of Eden in a sea of scorching sand and rocks, the Osiris Basin acts as a pathway to many organisms to live much deeper into the desert that they could otherwise, and even adapt to the surrounding mountains eventually. This inland delta of the Nile River used to be a small inland sea, the last remnant of the Mediterranean sea, but being fed by one of the largest rivers on earth means that it was maintained by a lot of water but it was also slowly filled in by thousands of tons of sediment.

Eventually, the result was this, the largest inland delta in the world, with a few small brackish lakes on what remains of the deepest parts of the ancient sea. In the wet season, it turns thousands of hectares of desert and scrubland into a bustling wetland ecosystem, returning to its almost dead state in the dry season, with the only life clinging around the small lakes remaining. This extreme seasonality and connection to the rest of the continent means this a biodiversity hotspot, and a key place for many migratory species to come here and reproduce.

------------------------

I hope you liked this map I want to make more of them focusing on different areas of the Artechocene Earth, until the next one! :>

[lockvogel]

Sunset in White Sands National Park

New Mexico

Have a great weekend, everyone 😊!

[unicorn-elvis]

Source: https://x.com/theshipwatcher/status/1868699439894085777

An early Christmas gift: it's baby boatstuck

[stormbearstudios]

Somewhere in the gypsum dunes of White Sands National Park.

[contentloadingandstuff]

Dark Days - Yoimiya x Male!Reader

A/N: Angst is back on the menu! Seriously though, this might be one of the angstiest things to ever appear on the blog. CW: Modern AU, reader death, swearing, war-time violence. I'll leave it at that, but do know that it's heavy stuff, even if non-graphic in nature.

You place your feet one after the other. The gypsum and sand crunches under your feet as you make your way to the gray, damaged concrete wall of some unrecognizable building. If it was a shop, the storefront must have broken, just as every bit of glass inside, currently in the form of crystal shards littering the street. 

Slowly making your way to the edge of the wall, you take a deep breath. You stick your head out slowly from behind the corner. The view in front of you would be very frightening just a few months ago, but now it has been woven into your daily life. The street was filled with rubble - smaller or larger chunks of stone and concrete, ripped out of various buildings but the explosions of rockets were scattered everywhere. A small tree, once standing proudly in a walkway flower pot, has been uprooted and thrown several meters away. The burnt car to your left, stripped of wheels and even the interior seats, completed the image of misery. 

Your eyes dart across the windows and roofs surrounding the small, plaza-like area. Much to your relief, they don't spot as much as a patch of green uniform anywhere in sight. You turn around and speak out in a restrained voice. 

“I don't see anything. I think we can go.”

Yoimiya nods and gets out from behind the ruin wall. She steps hastily over the rebar and concrete of the structure, the wind having already painted her delicate face with ash and plaster. Her hair is messy, tied in a makeshift ponytail that barely contained her dirty mane. The bags under her eyes speak of the many sleepless nights she had endured, of the hours spent in the basement and of the stress. The same stress that has soured her resting smile into nothing but a blank line of cracked lips. 

She takes her spot behind you. You pat her shoulder, making sure she stays where she is supposed to. Another deep breath. You move out from behind your cover and begin nervously jogging to the destroyed interior of the shop. You can hear her footsteps behind you. 

Your eyes glance nervously at the paneless windows of the buildings staring down at you. It's alright, you tell yourself. Nobody would be watching this random street. There hasn't been a single firefight here since two days ago, nor did you see a single team of soldiers - friendly or otherwise - moving across. And if there would be someone, they would certainly hold their fire. You're not armed, you're not wearing camo, you're clearly civilians. 

Somehow this doesn't give you any comfort. You glance back at Yoimiya, who is hopping across the street, carefully glancing around. She's keeping her distance, just as you instructed her to, and this eases your mind. She's with you. She's going nowhere where you aren't. She is safely behind you, and if someone starts shooting, you'll be the one to take the hits. 

It's your obligation to protect her. 

You quickly step over the shop's missing display, pushing apart the cheaply made, wooden stands that once housed clothes and handbags. They have been either secured by the owner or just looted by the soldiers, maybe even the people passing by. You smirk to yourself. If the electronics's shop wasn't burnt by napalm, you might have snatched yourself a nice console. Well, you'll be lucky to even survive this ordeal. 

The interior is just as you pictured it - empty, with broken furniture scattered around. The store is empty, obviously, but you notice a set of tiled stairs leading to the second floor. After a quick look to make sure Yoimiya is following you, you start ascending the steps. 

A dull stream of light is cast on concrete through a small window overlooking the entryway. You glance at it. The glass is gone, as customary for the city of today. You turn your eyes back towards your destination and freeze. 

Silence falls in the room as you remain motionless. Before you is a body, clad in anachronistic, green camo. Both the colors of the clothes and the stain of dark, dried blood underneath contrast with the ever present dust and monotony of the ruins. His rifle is still in his hand, but there aren't any shells around. He lies face down, but his neck is visible just enough for the paleness of his skin to indicate he hasn't died recently. 

“What's going on?” Yoimiya whispers, alarmed. “What do you see?”

You shake your head sideways. “Nothing. There's a body… It's one of ours.” A brief look at his arm confirms this - the Inazuman flag patch is attached to the velcro area of his uniform. 

His backpack is gone, but his combat straps are still there, holding up pockets likely filled with first aid supplies or snacks. Maybe his canteen is still intact, you hope. 

“I’ll check the body. Stay on the lookout, Yoi.” You turn around and place a hand on her shoulder. Your eyes do their best to cover your nervousness. “Can you do that for me?”

She nods. “Okay. Just… Just please be careful. Please.” 

You wink at her pleading eyes, making a small smirk find its way to her face. “I promise.” 

You turn back to the second floor. Just a few steps and you'll be in front of the window the man was shot from. Judging by how old the body looks, it doesn't seem like the enemy is around anymore. You muster up the courage and continue your ascent, moving almost prone to keep yourself low. Your heart is beating loudly in your ears with each traveled meter, still going as you get down on one knee and lean over the body. The body doesn't reek of decay, at least not yet. 

The nature of what you're about to do sickens you. 

You pull your sleeves over your hands. There was no time to think of morality now, especially that your supplies were running low. There wasn't a chance to evacuate either now that fighting has gone into full swing in the city. 

Wasting no time, you get to investigating his equipment. You quickly locate a particularly stuffed pocket, opening it and, to your delight, finding a bright red pack with a white cross inside. Moments later his canteen is uncovered, filled to the brim with fresh water. What's even better - amongst his documents in the inner pockets of his vest you find a small, stainless steel flask. 

You open it and wipe the dust and speckles of blood with your sleeve, hopes growing. You put the metal to your lips and take a small swing. Alcohol burns your tongue oh so pleasantly. It has been a fair few days since you had even this simple pleasure. Anything to break the monotony of water and old juice was very welcome. 

You smile. Such a little thing, and just how much happiness it can bring! 

Overcome with excitement, you straighten out. 

Before you can turn around and tell Yoimiya about your discovery, let alone blink, your world goes dark. 

A gunshot rings out and before Yoimiya’s very eyes you fall to the ground. 

“Y/N!” 

She dashes forward but her shoe catches on some rubble. Yoimiya faceplants into the floor just in time to avoid another bullet, this one directed her way. She recovers and starts crawling towards you. Her hands latch onto your ankle and with all the strength pulls your body towards her. The crimson that drags behind you is sickening. 

As soon as you're out of the sniper's line of sight, she throws herself at you with desperation in her every movement. She cups your cheeks, already stained red with the blood pouring from your mouth. 

“No no no no, baby, please, please you'll be alright okay?” She rips your blood soaked shirt open, revealing a large wound near the middle of your chest. “Please, please just talk to me!”

She throws down her backpack and pulls out the small medkit. With shaking, red fingers she breaks it open and rummages for the gauze. She grabs a fistful of it and turns back to you. Yoimiya forces the bindings into the wound, hoping to stop the blood from pouring out. More and more of it is pushed deep into your wound, but it does nothing to help. Tears gather in her eyes, but her will powers through. She can still save you. She still can. You'll be okay. 

“Talk to me, please!” 

She looks into your eyes and finds them wide open. Unblinking. Frozen. 

Lifeless. 

Her movements grow weak as the realization falls upon her. 

“No… No…” 

She wraps her arms around your lukewarm body and sobs softly. 

Suddenly, the closer door on the left of the corridor bursts open, two enemy soldiers coming through with their rifles raised. They aim at her. 

“Hands up!” They shout, but she doesn’t obey. She just looks up at them, tears streaming down her face. 

The soldiers glance at your body in her arms. The men lower their weapons. 

She stiffens as they approach her. One of them crouches down to meet her eye-to-eye. His face is obscured by a balaclava, leaving only a small window above his nose to see through. The smell hits her right away, the stench of alcohol and a long-unwashed body. 

“Fufu~ Would you look at that? Our sentry told us he saw the enemy, but we didn't expect to go up against such a pretty thing.” 

Yoimiya swallows a sob and pulls your body closer to hers. Her eyes narrow through the tears. The other soldier audibly hangs up his rifle and walks behind her. She doesn't bother to look. 

“We've been a little cold here you know? A girl to warm us up at night would be quite nice, especially such a young hottie as yourself.” He chuckles to himself. “That won't be a problem now that you're free, right-”

She lashes out with her hand, activating her vision and scorching his face with Pyro. He screams and falls back. Right away, Yoimiya feels a powerful blow on the back of her head. Her eyes fill with black spots as she's grabbed by her hair and violently yanked up. She screams and tries to fight back, but soon feels the business-end of a pistol pressed against her back. 

The wounded soldier rises up, covering his burnt face with his other hands. He growls. “You fucking bitch.” 

Yoimiya’s chin is grabbed by the man, hard. She whines in pain as her whole head is forced to face the man. The fire revealed his face. He is no older than herself. 

“I wanted to be nice to you, we could have had a nice night, but you fucking spoiled it. We'll fuck you dead, like a street whore.” 

Yoimiya spits in his face. Her head throws back as she receives a powerful strike across her cheek. She can feel a tooth has broken loose. She is hoisted up and despite her best efforts, her resistance is fruitless. They drag her towards the room they came out of. Her hands grasp the door frame, but a punch easily breaks her grip. 

Yoimiya sobs. 

Before the door closes, the last thing she can see is your lifeless eyes.

Thank you for reading.

[backside-into-the-heavenly]

Experience the serene and otherworldly beauty of White Sands National Park in New Mexico, USA 🇺🇸. The pristine white gypsum dunes stretch endlessly under a vast sky, creating a stark yet stunning contrast. Delicate ripples in the sand and resilient desert flora add to the ethereal landscape, inviting you to explore this unique natural wonder.

[thorsenmark]

I Must Be Gone: There Is a Path Forward for Me to Travel (Guadalupe Mountains National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While walking a traveled hiking path in the Salt Basin Dunes of Guadalupe Mountains National Park and a view looking to the northwest. My thinking in composing this image was to angle my Nikon SLR camera slightly downward from the high ground I was on and create a sweeping view across this desert and national park landscape. A little bit of blue skies above the horizon would be present in the upper portion of the image.