Desert of Maine

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Desert of Maine
Inside the Sand Museum in Freeport, Maine

Coordinates: 43°51′33″N 70°09′21″W / 43.859289°N 70.155722°W / 43.859289; -70.155722

The Desert of Maine is a tourist attraction whose main feature is a 40-acre (160,000 m2) expanse of glacial sand dunes, surrounded by a coastal forest, in the town of Freeport, Maine, in the United States.[1] The Desert of Maine is not a true desert, as it receives an abundance of precipitation. The surrounding vegetation is being allowed to encroach on the barren dunes.

The land that encompasses the Desert of Maine was purchased by the Tuttle family in 1821. Like other Maine farmers of the era who were struggling to compete in an expanding agricultural market, the Tuttles’ methods of farming gradually depleted the soil of essential nutrients. Combined with overgrazing by large numbers of sheep, the widespread erosion of the Tuttles’ topsoil exposed a deposit of glacial sand that was lying underneath.[2] The initially exposed small patch of sand gradually spread and overtook the entire farm. The Tuttles abandoned the land in 1890. For years, it was known as "the sand farm" and it was a popular local feature.[3] The farmhouse burned down in 1919. In 1926, Henry Goldrup purchased the land for $400 ($7.50/acre), and converted it to a tourist attraction.[1]

The site is preserved as a natural curiosity,[4] hosting a gift shop, a sand museum, and a farm museum.[5]

Geology[]

Toward the end of the last Ice Age, New England was completely covered by the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which was up to 3000 meters (almost 2 miles) thick in the region at its maximum extent.[6] At this time, New England’s highest mountain peaks (e.g., Mount Washington; Mount Katahdin; Mount Mansfield) were all entombed beneath the ice.[7] The immense weight of the ice sheet at its maximum actually pushed the land of coastal Maine down below sea level,[8][9] perhaps as much as 175-245 meters below current elevations. [10][11]

With the retreat of the melting glacier (which reached the Freeport area around 16,000 years ago), the land of Maine began to rebound toward sea level. [12] By about 13,500 years ago, the rebounding of the land and the associated drop in sea level reached the point in the Freeport area where the location of the future Desert of Maine began to emerge from beneath the waves.[13][14][15] This was about the same time that ice margin retreat had reached the top of Vermont and New Hampshire. [16] [17]

At some point after the Desert area emerged, it became a sink for wind-blown sand, probably around 12,500 years ago. Pathfinder plants would have begun to stabilize the open sand deposits fairly quickly, perhaps within just a few hundred years.[18] From those initial plants grew a forest, stabilizing the sand deposit until the Tuttles' farming practices uncovered it and allowed the wind to once again move the sand.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Casey, Maura J. (September 22, 2006). "The Little Desert That Grew in Maine". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Lear, Alex (February 24, 2020). "Sifting History's Sands". Portland Press Herald.
  3. ^ Gould, John (September 5, 1997). "Freeport's Desert of Maine, way back when". The Times Record.
  4. ^ Bahr, Jeff (2009). Amazing and Unusual America. Chicago, Illinois, USA: Publications International, Ltd. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-4127-1683-3.
  5. ^ "Desert of Maine". Desert of Maine. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  6. ^ Dyke, A.S.; Andrews, J.T.; Clark, P.U.; Englad, J.H; Miller, G.H.; Shaw, J.; Veillette, J.J (2002). "The Laurentide and Innuitian ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum" (PDF). Quaternary Science Reviews (21): 9–31.
  7. ^ Koester, AJ; Shakun, JD; Bierman, PR; Davis, PT; Corbett, LB; Braun, D; Zimmerman, SR (2017). "Rapid thinning of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in coastal Maine, USA, during late Heinrich Stadial 1". Quaternary Science Reviews (163): 180–192.
  8. ^ Thompson, W.B., K.J. Crossen, H.W. Borns, Jr., & B.G. Andersen, 1989, Glaciomarine deltas of Maine and their relation to late Pleistocene-Holocene crustal movements, pp 43-67. In W.A. Anderson & H.W. Borns, Jr. (eds.), Neotectonics of Maine: studies in seismicity, crustal warping, and sea level change. Maine Geological Survey Bulletin 40.
  9. ^ Borns Jr., H.W., L.A. Doner, C.C. Dorion, G.L. Jacobson, M.R. Kaplan, K.J. Kreutz, T.V.Lowell, W.B. Thompson, & T.K. Weddle, 2004, The deglaciation of Maine, U.S.A. pp. 89-109, In J.E. Ehlers & P. Gibbard (eds.), Quaternary Glaciations - Extent and Chronology, Part II, Elsevier.
  10. ^ Hooke, R. Leb & J. Fastook, 2007, Thermal conditions at the bed of the Laurentide ice sheet in Maine during deglaciation: implications for esker formation. Journal of Glaciology53(183):646-658.
  11. ^ Oakley, B.A. & J.C. Boothroyd, 2012, Reconstructed topography of southern New Denland prior to isostatic rebound with implications of total isostatic depression and relative sea level. Quaternary Research 78(1):110-118.
  12. ^ Koester, A.J., J.D. Shakun, P.R. Bierman, P.T. Davis, L.B. Corbett, D. Braun, S.R. Zimmerman, 2017, Rapid thinning of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in coastal Maine, USA, during late Heinrich Stadial 1. Quaternary Science Reviews 163:180-192.
  13. ^ Thompson, W.B., 2008. Surficial geology of the Portland West quadrangle, Maine. Maine Geological Survey, Augusta, Open-File 08-16.
  14. ^ Thompson, W.B., C.B. Griggs, N.G. Miller, R.E. Nelson, T.K. Weddle, & T.M. Kilian, 2011, Associated terrestrial and marine fossils in the late-glacial Presumpscot Formation, southern Maine, USA, and the marine reservoir effect on radiocarbon ages. Quaternary Research 75(30): 552-565.
  15. ^ Retelle, M.J., & T.K. Weddle, 2001, Deglaciation and relative sea-level chronology, Casco Bay Lowland and lower Androscoggin River valley, Maine, pp. 191-214. In T.K. Weddle & M.J. Retelle (eds.), Deglacial history and relative sea-level changes, northern New England and adjacent Canada. Geological Society of America Special Paper 351.
  16. ^ Ridge, J.C., 2003, Chapter 3: The last deglaciation of the northeastern United States: a combined varve, paleomagnetic, and calibrated 14C chronology, pp. 15-45. In D.L. Cremeens & J.P. Hart (eds.), Geoarchaeology of Landscapes in the Glaciated Northeast. New York State Museum Bulletin 497.
  17. ^ Koester, A.J., J.D. Shakun, P.R. Bierman, P.T. Davis, L.B. Corbett, D. Braun, S.R. Zimmerman, 2017, Rapid thinning of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in coastal Maine, USA, during late Heinrich Stadial 1. Quaternary Science Reviews 163:180-192
  18. ^ McKeon, J.B., 1989, Later-glacial dunes, ventifacts, and wind direction in west-central Maine, pp. 89–101. In R.D. Tucker & R.G. Marvinney (eds.), Maine Geological Survey Studies in Maine Geology: Quaternary Geology, Vol. 6. Augusta, Maine Geological Survey.

External links[]



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