These sand dunes stretch approximately 100 kilometers along the southern edge of Lake Athabasca in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and are among the northernmost active sand dunes on Earth.
Unlike most dunes, which are located in dry and arid regions, the Athabasca Sand Dunes hide among wetlands and dense forests, one of the planet's most unique geological oddities. The dunes cover an area of over 30,000 hectares and, thanks to their extraordinary ecosystem, are distinguished by an unusually diverse biological life.
The Athabasca Sand Dunes were formed about 8000-9000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age. As the ice sheet melted, the meltwater washed out vast amounts of sand, silt, and sediment from the local sandstone into Lake Athabasca. The water level in the lake at that time was much higher than it is now. Then the lake retreated, exposing large sandy deposits on the shores. For millennia, wind has molded the sand into the bizarre formations we see today. Nature continues to do this to this day, shaping and rearranging the dunes and pushing them towards the surrounding forest.
The Athabasca sand dunes are located on top of the so-called Canadian Shield, which forms the ancient geological core of the North American continent. This rock covers half of Canada and extends into the northern regions of the United States, making it one of the oldest rocks on Earth, between 2.5 and 4.2 billion years old. In the Athabasca dune area, the Canadian Shield is covered with a thin layer of soil about 20 meters thick.
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The entire sandy area, including the areas south of the dunes, serves as a huge aquifer, significantly affecting plant life and dune development. More than three hundred species of plants live here, some of which are quite rare, or even endemic. Athabasca is definitely on the list of the most beautiful dunes in the world, about which there is a separate collection on LifeGlobe.
Since the 1990s, the dunes have been protected as part of a provincial park, which also covered some of the surrounding areas. But getting to the Athabasca region is not easy.
Since there are no roads, the only way to access the dunes is by boat.
Lake Athabasca is 26% in Alberta and 74% in Saskatchewan. The lake is 283 km long, the maximum width is up to 50 km, and the surface area is 7850 km2. The volume of water in it is estimated at 204 km3. The maximum depth is 124 meters. It is the largest freshwater body in terms of volume, area and depth in the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the eighth in all of Canada.
The Athabasca dunes are active. This means they are moving. Until now, the wind is gradually moving the dunes from the lake towards the forest.
Thanks to its unusual ecosystem, this area is home to an incredibly diverse flora and fauna. The entire sandy region, including the area south of the dunes, serves as a huge aquifer, which as a result significantly affects the life of plants and animals. More than three hundred species of plants grow in the dunes, of which 52 are rare and 9 species are generally endemic (recall, this means they are not found anywhere else and are characteristic only for a particular region). 23 species of fish live in the waters of the lake, including pike perch, pike and trout. In 1961, trout weighing more than 46 kilograms was caught here.
Since 1969, there have been proposals to make the dunes and their surroundings a protected area. But the idea was rejected. In 1973, the Nature Saskatchewan again proposed the creation of a Provincial Park in the region, and again the proposal was rejected. Only on August 24, 1992, the government organized the Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park here (originally Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park).
Since then, both the dunes and the surrounding area with its ecosystem have been protected.