gypsum - unusual sand selenite from a dry lake in the Atacama Desert, Ica Province, southern Peru - hand/display specimen The phenocrysts are plagioclase and

The phenocrysts are plagioclase and quartz

which feeds the beach directly

muscovite mica        KAL3Si3O10(OH)2

the Coral Pink Sand Dunes are entirely composed of similar sand derived from the Navajo Sandstone

bituminous coal and then anthracite

gypsum - unusual sand selenite from a dry lake in the Atacama Desert, Ica Province, southern Peru - hand/display specimen The phenocrysts are plagioclase andSelenite gypsum sand rose CaSO4 2H2O Selenite gypsum sand "roses" form in seasonal desert lakes as they dry. Selenite is typically transparent, but when it crystallizes in sandy conditions it forms rosettes of flattened crystals, the rose petals, which are either encrusted with sand or with sand embedded throughout. The color of the gypsum crystals depends on the color of the sand in that dry lake. These Peruvian examples were recently discovered and