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How old are the dunes?

April 26, 2017dunes

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How old are the dunes?

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We don’t yet know. To date there is no accurate process to date sand. Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating may provide us with some clues, but so far the results at Great Sand Dunes are very inconclusive. The OSL process determines how much time has passed since quartz crystals were last exposed to sunlight. As we currently understand it, the dunes are probably thousands of years old, not millions, and may date to when Lake Alamosa disappeared.