COLORED SAND BEACHES - What Gives Sand Its Color? What Is Sand?

Colored Sand Beaches – What Gives Sand Its Color? What Is Sand? // From white sand beaches to black sand beaches, and even multicolored sand beaches - Earth has it all! But where does the sand color come from? What gives sand its color? The white sand beaches are made up of pure quartz. The pink sand beaches get their color foraminifera. The orange sand color comes from the presence in the sand of minerals rich in iron. The red sand beaches are based on iron oxide (rust). Purple sand beaches are based on different minerals. The Pfeiffer beach in California has a purple sand because of the mixing of manganese garnet mineral particles with the quartz particles. The purple sand at Plum Island Beach in Massachusetts, US comes from mixing a variety of sand grains with different colors, including grains of pink almandine-pyrope garnet, white quartz, a mix of black minerals like augite, ilmenite, hematite, and green epidote. The green sand beaches get their green color from a mineral called olivine, another mineral formed from the cooling of lava from volcanic eruptions. The Rockaway Beach, Pacifica, California is a chocolate-color beach. The brown sand color comes from impurities in the limestone mixed with particles from dark volcanic greenstone. Gray sand beaches have their origin in either a combination of shale with graywacke sandstone, or in a combination of basalt granules with fragmented shells, corals and other marine creatures. The black sand beaches are made of basalt granules coming from the weathering of the basaltic rocks formed through the rapid cooling of the lava when it reaches the ocean water. The multicolored sand beach (The Rainbow Beach in Queensland, Australia) is formed of sand of different hues of red, orange, and yellow coming from the nearby huge sand cliffs made from many layers of sand deposits over a long period of time. Glass beaches were formed through the action of the waves and currents on glass dumped on the shore. The pieces glass were transformed into small, colorful pebble-like fragments that are now the basis of glass beaches, such as the Glass Beach in Kauai, Hawaii, and the Glass Beach near Fort Bragg, California. What is sand? Sand is a granular material whose composition varies depending on the location and the composition of the rock sources, but its most common component is quartz. Sand is produced through a weathering process of rocks and minerals. Subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my upcoming Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels & updates on new videos: https://www.mariabaias.com/newsletter Blog post “Colored Sand Beaches–What Gives Sand Its Color? What Is Sand?”: https://www.mariabaias.com/post/color... Timecodes: 0:00 – Intro on colored sand beaches 1:27 – What is sand? 2:47 – White sand beaches 3:32 – Pink sand beaches 4:29 – Orange sand beaches 5:04 – Red sand beaches 6:02 – Purple sand beaches 7:30 – Green sand beaches 8:04 – Brown sand beaches 8:39 – Gray sand beaches 9:05 – Black sand beaches 10:06 – Multicolored sand beach 10:58 – Glass beaches Instagram:   / authormariabaias   Twitter:   / netanmr   Facebook:   / netanmr   About me: My name is Maria Baias and I’m a scientist turned Sci-Fi/Fantasy writer. While teaching a university course on Inorganic Chemistry, I became fascinated by minerals and rocks and the role they play in shaping interesting geological formations. That, combined with my research background in Heritage Science are what led to my interests in using science to explore and understand the wonders of our planet. I’m happy to share those stories with the rest of the world through this channel and my blog. #WorldHeritage #NaturalHeritage #beaches Resources: 10 Beaches of Unusual Colour https://owlcation.com/stem/Beaches-Un... How Does Sand Get Its Color? https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/edu... Why Is The Sand Purple At Plum Island Beach? https://www.jeolusa.com/BLOG/why-is-t... Does Rainbow Beach Have Rainbow Sand? https://www.discoverherveybay.com/doe... What Is Sand? https://www.livescience.com/34748-wha... Minerals: Quartz: https://www.mindat.org/min-3337.html Garnet: https://www.mindat.org/min-10272.html Almandine-pyrope: https://www.mindat.org/min-8589.html Augite: https://www.mindat.org/min-419.html Ilmenite: https://www.mindat.org/min-2013.html Hematite: https://www.mindat.org/min-1856.html Epidote: https://www.mindat.org/min-1389.html Olivine: https://www.mindat.org/min-29264.html Greenstone: https://www.mindat.org/min-50066.html Shale: https://www.mindat.org/min-49444.html Graywacke: https://www.mindat.org/min-49126.html Basalt: https://www.mindat.org/min-48492.html All images and videos are from Canva. Music - "Up Kilkenny (Instrumental version)" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/