Factoid/2002/01/18
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< Beachapedia:Factoid | 2002 | 01
Delaware Beach Sand, Part 1 of 2
- "I scoop up a handful of wet sand from my feet, a lump that has likely passed through the guts of innumerable worms. The grains have distant origins and rich history. Derived from the weathering of ancient continental granite over thousands of years, they are colorless quartz and pink feldspar, mixed with a light crush of shells and tiny fragments of heavy minerals, zircon, amphibole, and garnet, which suggest the sand's source - igneous and metamorphic rocks from the Piedmont Province to the west. The great bulk is quartz, among the hardest of minerals at Earth's surface. After years of grinding by waves, quartz breaks down to round, polished crystals that are nearly indestructible."(Excerpt from the book, Notes from the Shore, by Jennifer Ackerman, Penguin Books, 1995, pp. 71-72)
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