Where does sand come from? Every time you walk along the beach millions of grains of sand move beneath your feet. At a glance it’s just sand, but when viewed through a microscope, you can see that the grains are actually colourful fragments of gem, coral, minerals and shells. That’s because sand is the remnants of weathered rock and shelled creatures, broken down by waves and wind over hundreds of millions of years. Each individual grain has its own, amazing geographic and biological history. For instance, scientists have discovered that a grain of sand found in the Jack Hills in Western Australia is actually a tiny crystal of zircon and is 4.4 billion years old. To put that in perspective, it’s thought that the Earth itself is about 4.5 billion years old. So who knows — the sand you find through your car after you visit the beach could have seen life on Earth evolve. By Naomi Edwards - Coastal advocate. BeachCare & CoastEd - Centre for Coastal Management
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 06:14:36 +0000
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