The Tottori Sand Dunes are a masterpiece of Mother Nature formed by the pounding winter waves of the Sea of Japan and granitic sand carried by the swift current of the Sendaigawa River that originates high in the Chugoku Mountains. The ripple patterns seen in the beautifully rolling dunes are constantly being changed by the wind. The sand has been deposited in multiple layers: a thick layer of old sand deposited on a bedrock of granite some 80 m underground, volcanic ash layers from eruptions by Mt. Daisen in Western Tottori and the Aira Caldera in Kagoshima, Southern Kyushu, and a new sand layer on top that gives the dunes their present shape.
In this harsh environment, people have developed ways to farm, producing today local specialties like shallots. The dunes have also aided research into pioneering environmental studies on preventing and reversing desertification.