where does the sand on the beach come from?

Question

where does the sand on the beach come from?

Answer 1

Sand is an example of a class of materials called granular matter. Sand is a naturally occurring, finely divided rock, comprising particles or granules ranging in size from 0.0625 (or 1/16) to 2 millimeters. An individual particle in this range size is termed a sand grain. The next smaller size class in geology is silt: particles below 0.0625 mm down to 0.004 mm in size. The next larger size class above sand is gravel, with particles ranging from 2 mm up to 64 mm (see grain size for standards in use). Sand feels gritty when rubbed between the fingers (silt feels like flour).

Answer 2

Where Does Sand Come From

Answer 3

Erotion... mountian erode, from rocks down to sand. Rivers deposit sand into the sea, and the sand at the beach is the most resistant minerals that do not break down in river transport or by the pounding of the waves. These include quartz, mainly, but can also be dominant in zircon, rutile, and tourmaline.

In rare cases, beach sand can be made out of coral or baslat (black sand beaches of Hawai'i), but these are speciall cases in which these things are more common than regular rocks, so quartz if dwarfed out by competition.

Answer 4

The sand on beaches does not come from shells although there might be broken shells mixed in with the sand.

Sand is Silicon Dioxide and shells are Calcium Carbonate (the same thing as limestone).

Sand comes from rocks that contain amorphous silicon dioxide, quartz (crystalline silicon dioxide), and similar silicates. So sand comes from rocks that have been ground down into small particles in being washed down streams and rivers to the ocean.

The ocean floors tend to be mud and not sand. So geologically sandstone and rocks formed from sand tend to have been created in river beds and along ocean shores.

Answer 5

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RE:
where does the sand on the beach come from?
where does the sand on the beach come from?

Answer 6

Sand is created by natural processes pulverizing rocks into fragments. Waves and wind are two of the main sources of such abrasion. Oceans are much, much older than any inland lakes or seas, so they have had eons more time for the wave action to pulverize any rocks or cliffs surrounding the water. Running water also carries small particles much farther than large particles of sand or gravel, so due to the fact that oceans are the lowest point of any ground area, sand has been carried from everywhere uphill of them down to the shore by rivers or floods.

Answer 7

I live in Los Angeles. The sand on the beach appears to be quartz. Rivers brought it down from the San Gabriel mountains, which have plenty of the right kind of rock for breaking up into little bits of quartz gravel. The tumbling action the gravel gets in the river on its way downstream from the mountains further breaks it into sand.

Answer 8

Some sand is the result of rocks being smushed as the lady above said. Other sand comes from shells of crustaceans that have been smushed. In other words sand came be of organic origin, inorganic origin, or a combination of the both, which is probably the most common case.

Answer 9

From the rocks on the shores that get eroded by the waves.
In some places, like the white sand of Sarasota, Florida, for instance, it is the result of corals and other marine animals shells broken down to bits -- as opposed to rocks.

Answer 10

some sand such as that in the carribean comes from crustaceans ie mollusks clams etc while other sands are the result of the wearing down of rock by natural causes ie rain water action of the seas, rock such as sandstone, and even volcanic ash