What's inside this website? The chapters of this website describe in hopefully simple terms the geological evolution of White Sands, and factors in the modern environments of deposition that impact the White Sands and the creatures who live in them. If you are a visitor, we hope you will enjoy your visit more because you became aware of the geological underpinnings of the White Sands through study of these results.
About this website: This website is a preliminary version of a report intended for ultimate publication in more formal scientific channels. However, it was decided by the author and the National Park Service, with the consent of Southwest Parks and Monuments, to put together a website first. This was done in order to speed release of new information to those in the interested public and the National Park Service who support resource management and educational activities. An interesting aspect of a "publication" on the web is that, unlike conventional publications, this one can be updated easily as more information is obtained. And of course, the cost of presenting color images to the public is greatly reduced. We provide links to the author, the Park Service chief of interpretation, and other resource people who can answer questions or direct enquiries about the geology of White Sands.
Acknowledgements: The study on which this website is based was supported by a generous grant from the Southwest Parks and Monuments association. SPMA have graciously permitted the publication of this experimental volume to the internet. Additional and very substantial support was provided by the National Park Service, The United States Army, the White Sands Missile Range and Shell Exploration and Production in the United Kingdom. We also thank Donna Mousseddad at Shell for countless hours of drafting, and John Mangimeli, Chief of Interpretation at White Sands, without whose encouragement and support this work would never have come to completion. We also thank Brenda Buck and Bruce Allen, who read draft versions of this document, and the staff at White Sands National Monument including Bill Conrod, all those many friends and acquaintances and fellow scientists who wandered with us in the heat.
About the Author: Steven Fryberger is a petroleum geologist and sedimentologist who has studied White Sands off and on for twenty years. He has worked in academic research, for the US Geological Survey and in the oil and gas industry. He currently resides in Scotland and is employed by Shell UK Exploration and Production. Some of Steve's publications are cited in the bibliography of this website.
Want to learn more? Notice something we overlooked?: We will gratefully accept reader advice, or even corrections to the manuscript that we may have overlooked. This document belongs to all of us. If you have any further questions, just e-mail me.
Copyright: For the protection of the right of the public and the National Park Service to use this document, it is copyrighted by Rockatlas.com, however you may make copies as you like for research or teaching, or for personal use, as long as you don't sell this work to others.
**You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for most of the figures in this text. You can get it here.**
Contact: Steven G. Fryberger
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Website design: Sarah Fryberger & Danny Archibald