Sand. Have you ever taken a close up look at exactly what it is? We all know that it gets everywhere. I have been picking sand from the pocket of a jacket that I wore during a trip to Pismo beach for at least 4 years now. But what exactly is it?
Looks to be a lot of "broken glass", some crushed coral, and broken down minerals/rock. Wonder what else is in there that I'm not seeing.
Photo was taken with a Samsung S8 and a small magnifying lens.
"Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. It is defined by size, being finer than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of soil or soil type; i.e., a soil containing more than 85 percent sand-sized particles by mass.[1]
The composition of sand varies, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal settings is silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), usually in the form of quartz. The second most common type of sand is calcium carbonate, for example, aragonite, which has mostly been created, over the past half billion years, by various forms of life, like coral and shellfish. For example, it is the primary form of sand apparent in areas where reefs have dominated the ecosystem for millions of years like the Caribbean."
Taken from Wikipedia