News

  This is a photo of a black sand dune discovered on Mars. The sand dune is between 15-20 feet tall. Similar to the Shifting Sands in Tanzania and the Black Beaches of Hawaii, but both are lighter than the newly discovered sand on Mars.  This photo was taken by the Curiosity rover driving along on its way to Mount Sharp (its primary target), making it the first active dune to ever be visited on another planet! Here is the path Curiosity has taken since landing in 2012. The rover is currently stationed at Namib dune for a few weeks; sampling the dune, using...

Happy Holidays from Jurassic Sands and we just wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone who has helped our business grow.  We know the holidays can be hectic and we just wanted to share an amazing sand sculpture that we believe many of you can relate to due to the holiday season and having the new Star Wars out. Here is just a little bit about how artists build these amazing sculptures. First, a wooden form is built around where the sculpture will be, and the fine sand is added in about a foot deep. Water is added,...

Greetings from the Indian Educators conference where we are inviting members of the Indian Nations in attendance to Carve their Own Rock Art. Here are a few from this morning. The four shown have great stories that go with each. Penobscot shows the Fiddle Head fern, a spring food source. The Laguna Pueblo rock art board was done by a teenager attending the college fair here at conference.The MOWA Choctaw shield is from the Mobile Washington Alabama tribe. Last but not least is the Sand Scratch Board carved by a member of the Patungwungya (pumpkin) Clan. The member depicts her...

I just saw The Martian, staring Matt Damon, last night and I can't say enough great things about this film. The pacing is incredible, it can go from lighthearted humor to some of the sweatiest-palm-scenes I have ever experienced in a movie. The Martian is set on the red planet and with NASA's recent announcement about discovery of water I began to see more and more similarities between Earth and Mars. It sparked my interest to know where they filmed the Mars look alike. It turns out, to approximate Mars’s dusty red environs, Ridley Scott shot the movie’s exteriors in Wadi Rum in southern Jordan. Also called...

Greetings to all NIHSDA members! I'm so excited for you to see these wonderful Rock Art carvings done on our Jurassic Sand Scratch Boards at the 2015 NIHSDA meeting in Sacramento.   I want to thank everyone that took me up on my offer to 'sign' our unique visitor book. It was a 5" x 7" piece of Navajo Sandstone mounted to white cardboard that you had to carve into to make modern-day Petroglyphs. We make them from the sand that has weathered out of the 200 million year old Navajo Sandstone Formation (the geological name of the rock formation we...