Beach sand is more complex than first glances. It has tales to tell of an amazing voyage to the sea and the land. This is due to the fact that mountains die and become beach sand.
The mountains erode with time. Their excreted mud, sand, gravel, cobbles, and boulders wash into streams, which eventually unite to form rivers. All of this sediment is crushed and worn down in nature’s equivalent of a rock tumbler as they flow down to the sea.
The majority of what makes it to the sea is mud because large rocks crumble into smaller ones. The silt and clay particles are too tiny for the human eye to see. However, individual sand grains—which are essentially larger rocks—are visible.
Take a handful of sand the next time you’re at the beach and examine it closely. Are the grains a rainbow assortment or are they all the same color? Are they round and smooth, or jagged and angular?
Different minerals, such as khaki feldspar, smoky white quartz, green olivine, or black basalt, are the sources of different colors of sand. The variety of colors found in beach sand indicates the types of rocks that formed it.
Additionally, the form of sand grains can reveal information about their origins. Compared to smooth round grains that have been more worn down, angular grains of the same type of sand have not traveled as far. Harder rocks that compose sand break down more slowly because weaker rocks dissolve into mud more quickly than hard rocks.
Sand makes up around 10% of the sediment supply that makes it to the sea. These particles are roughly the thickness of a penny, with sizes ranging from half a millimeter to two millimeters. Because of their size, these particles don’t flow directly into the deep sea.
But sand only stops for a while at the beach. Large waves pull it offshore and move it along the coast by smaller ones. Thus, a beach cannot remain sandy unless it is replenished with sand.
Thus, the next time your toes dip into beach sand, consider the incredible journey it took to get there. Consider for a moment the origin and destination of the sand.
Since beach sand is not allowed to be sold, the best alternative is silica sand.
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