Does anyone know if the sand at the beaches are finer when its nearer the sea than furthur inland?

Question

if the sand near the sea is finer and less coarse, is it due to erosion? or something like that?

Answer 1

depends what sea shore....there is very fine sand on some inland lakes.......a lot of thefines depends on distance traveled sand is tumbled.....wherever you find it....look at it with a m- scope.....the smooth particles are well tumbled...course sharp sided are newer

Answer 2

The sand dunes in Death Valley were made of some pretty fine sand, actually it is finer than alot of the sand I have at the Pacific Ocean beach near me.

yeah, i'd say erosion has something to do with the formation of sand, but it seems as if there are many formative processes out there.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=989

Answer 3

Much, if not most sand is produced by glaciation. Glaciers -- heavy, slowly moving rivers of ice -- are marvelous for their grinding qualities. They grind rock into smaller and smaller particles. When glaciers retreat, they dump their sand all over.

Then the water comes. Rivers, streams, and rivulets erode the landscape, carrying rock particles downstream toward the ocean. Faster moving streams and flash floods -- turbulent water -- carries all sort of rocks along with them. But as the terrain flattens out downstream, the larger particles drop out first. The further and slower the river flows, the finer the grade of material still carried by the water.

As a result, beaches have the finest sand as a general rule.

Answer 4

actually the sand on the beaches are finely grounded rock which has been turned into sand by the movement of water. imagine a middle size rock it had fallen into the river where the river begins it's life, it is carried thousand's of miles by the river and all the while it is getting smaller as it is bounded around through the bottom of the river. And by the end of it's journey it has been turned into sand.

Answer 5

We do not get too many beaches inland. The fineness of the sand is a friction affect of the waves washing it in over and over.

Answer 6

over time, larger particles will rise up and smaller particles will settle lower. the sand farther from the water was deposited there a longer time ago, this will put larger particles nearer to the top. result is the coarser sand is farther away from the water.

Answer 7

ya by washing