Q 01/05

Great Sand Dunes National Park lies in the south-central part of which US state?

A) Colorado

B) New Mexico

C) Utah

D) Arizona

Answer · why

A) Colorado

Colorado. The dunes lie on the east side of the San Luis Valley, a high desert basin about the size of Connecticut, where the prevailing wind sweeps t...

Q 02/05

The Great Sand Dunes hold which continental record?

A) Oldest in North America

B) Tallest in North America

C) Whitest sand in North America

D) Fastest-moving in North America

Answer · why

B) Tallest in North America

Tallest in North America. The highest, Hidden Dune, is now measured at 741 feet, and the dunes grow up instead of spreading out because storm winds of...

Q 03/05

Star Dune at Great Sand Dunes is a classic 'star dune', a type named for which feature?

A) A crater at its summit

B) Sand that sparkles at night

C) Ridges radiating from its peak

D) Its towering height

Answer · why

C) Ridges radiating from its peak

Ridges radiating from its peak. A star dune builds three or more arms only where the wind blows from several directions through the year, so the sand ...

Q 04/05

Photographs of the Great Sand Dunes from the 1870s show that since then the biggest dunes have done what?

A) Barely moved

B) Marched a mile east

C) Doubled in height

D) Shrunk by half

Answer · why

A) Barely moved

Barely moved. Set beside modern pictures, William Henry Jackson's early photographs show the same great ridges in the same places: loose grains skitte...

Q 05/05

The Sangre de Cristo range, which towers behind the Great Sand Dunes, belongs to which larger mountain system?

A) The Sierra Nevada

B) The Appalachians

C) The Rockies

D) The Cascades

Answer · why

C) The Rockies

The Rockies. The range is still rising along active faults, and the uplift has been so great that fossils from the floor of an ancient sea now sit in ...