GEOL 305 - “Earth Surface Processes”

Field Trip to White Sands New Mexico, March 11-17, 2009

Calculations

Based on d=0.5 mm, z = 10 m (height of anemometer), z0 = 10-4, ρsand = 2380 kg/m3, ρair = 1.23 kg/m3, porosity = 0.4, average height of dunes = 2.0892 m:

u*,crit (critical shear velocity for transport)

0.350 m/s

qs,mean (expected annual mass flux of sand)

4078 kg/m/yr

qs,dir (expected dune migration direction)

21.7° (trigonometric direction, ENE)

c (expected dune celerity)

1.37 m/yr

For further discussion, read this final paper for the GEOL 305 class project.

Field Data

LIDAR map of White Sands study area with measurement points

LIDAR map of White Sands study area with measurement points (has hillshade effect)

Aerial photo of entire white sands showing location of LIDAR

Groundwater data and plots

Groundwater shapefiles

Differential GPS points

Garmin GPS points

Groundwater well data from National Park Service

Grain data along transect

Grain size data - graphs

Groundwater well monitoring from National Park Service

National Park Service piezometer map

Piezometer 1 - 10/13/07 - 2/1/08

Piezometer 1 - 2/1/08 - 7/11/08

Piezometer 5 - 10/13/07 - 2/1/08

Piezometer 5 - 2/1/08 - 6/12/08

Grain sample modes along transect

White Sands sample minerology

Data Plots

Wind rose (of sediment transporting winds) based on Holloman AFB ground weather data, 1964-2008

Excel spreadsheet of mean monthly winds

Resultant of mean monthly wind vectors

Sediment transport capacity by month

Cumulative distribution function of sediment transporting winds

Links to Other Data

Radiosonde (09/1995-present at Santa Teresa, NM: WMO# = 72364)

Radar at Holloman AFB (08/1995-present)

Hourly surface weather data at Holloman AFB (09/1942-11/2008)

Hourly surface weather data at Holloman AFB (11/2008-present)

Hourly surface weather data at Alamogordo (01/1987-11/2008)

Hourly surface weather data at Alamogordo (11/2008-present)