Desert Roses

These beautiful Sand Roses are not made of sand;
they are in fact normally a combination of Gypsum 65%m quartz 10%, and the remainder being salt and dolomite.

They form when sea water is slowly drawn inland through the porous sand, all the time the concentration of salt and calcium sulfate is increasing as the water gradually evaporates until it reaches a salinity level of more than three times the normal sea water.

If conditions are ideal and the water table is about one meter below the floor of a 'sandy Sabkha', there will be further gradual evaporation of moisture and sand roses will start to develop.

No one is certain how long it takes sand roses to form and rise to the desert surface, but it is believed to be a matter of several decades which is faster than the blink of an eye by Geological timescales. (Easter Province Today 2008, pages. 202-203)

They look very fragile but in fact are hard as stone. They will break if dropped but you don't have to baby them too much.

Some friends recently went on a Sand Rose digging trip and brought these back. You do have to dig quite deep to find these. If you are lucky you might find a hole already started and instead of digging deeper you dig out. We have seen some that are clusters several feet long. Although that would be a tremendous find I do like these small individual ones too.

I don't think we'll have enough cool weekends left to go out and find some of these on our own but next year we will plan on it.