Seven Coloured Earths, Mauritius
The Seven Coloured Earths, a small region near the village of
Chamarel, Mauritius, is a geological curiosity and a major tourist
attraction of Mauritius. This relatively small area of about 7,500
square meters comprises of sand dunes of seven distinct colours
(approximately red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow).
The
sands were formed from the decomposition of volcanic rock (basalt)
gullies into clay, further transformed into ferralitic soil by total
hydrolysis (chemical break- down of minerals by water). The two main
elements of the resulting soil, iron and aluminium, are responsible for
red/anthracite and blue/purplish colours respectively. The different
shades of colour are believed to be a consequence of the molten volcanic
rock cooling down at different external temperatures.
An
unusual property of the sands is that they settle in different layers
even if mixed together that gives the dunes a surrealistic, striped
colouring. This strange phenomenon can be observed even on a smaller
scale, if one takes a handful of sands of different colours and mixes
them together, they'll eventually separate into a layered spectrum. The
cause of their consistent spontaneous separation is yet to be explained.
Another interesting feature of Chamarel's Coloured Earths is that the
dunes seemingly never erode, in spite of Mauritius' torrential, tropical
rains.
The
place has become one of Mauritius' main tourist attractions since the
1960s. Previously, visitors wee allowed to walk between the sand dunes
when visiting the park. Nowadays, the dunes are protected by a wooden
fence and visitors are not allowed to climb on them, although they can
look at the scenery from observation outposts placed along the fence.
Curio shops in the area sell small test-tubes filled up with the
coloured earths.
