John McPhee had a great New Yorker article (which I think was also in the collection Irons in the Fire), where he wrote about how U.S. geologists used sand found in the Japanese "Fu-Go" bombs that made it to the NW US to figure out their launch sites from specific beaches near Tokyo.

It starts on the 9th page here

https://gwern.net/doc/technology/1996-mcphee.pdf

I think the rotating photos create a poor UX. The purpose of this layout it seems is to let users view the images carefully and study the details, but the slideshow effect makes that difficult.

• richardkielbasa

  today at 7:59 PM

  I agree, furthermore the two dots at the bottom of each "slideshow" feel like poor design

  Why overlay anything on top of something like that?

• jhaile

  today at 6:44 PM

  From a casual browsing perspective, I liked it. However, it'd be nice to have it pause when you hover over one - or something like that. To get the best of both worlds.

• illumanaughty

  today at 7:06 PM

  I mean if your intent is to view the images carefully and study the details why not click through to the details page and see larger, more detailed photos?

Love this!

I've heard that desert sand is fundamentally smoother than beach or river sand. Would love to see some examples of non-beach sand side-by-side with these glorious samples.

• observationist

  today at 5:20 PM

  https://sandatlas.org/desert-sand/

  Ask and ye shall receive.

  • amelius

    today at 8:03 PM

    I would also like to see what happens if various types of sand are heated to various temperatures.

FYI, in many countries and U.S. states, it's illegal to take sand from a beach.

Cool website though.

(Also, in many U.S. parks, it's illegal to take rocks, sticks, or other natural material.)

• kickopotomus

  today at 7:49 PM

  That's a tad pedantic. Everyone takes sand from the beach. That's simply the nature of going to a beach. The spirit of those laws is to prevent people from taking large quantities of sand for some personal or commercial purpose.

• realslimjd

  today at 7:01 PM

  But is it legal to take a microscope to the beach?

  • rationalist

    today at 7:15 PM

    Not that I am aware of. I wouldn't suggest doing that in North Korea though (or possessing any type of scientific or other measuring instrument there).

    The website shows pictures of the sand collection and the microscope. It does not appear to be at a beach.

It would be nice if they included zoomed out pictures as well, is hard to tell what the beaches look like in person from the magnified sand.

• illumanaughty

  today at 7:04 PM

  If you click into one of the examples they have a photo of a hand holding a sample plus photos of the beach.

  • Animats

    today at 8:06 PM

    Well, here's a video which ends with a hand holding a sample.[1] It's a sand-making plant. Big rocks go in, and repeated crushing makes them into sand-sized rocks.

    [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVBiRPkQ0MI

This is lovely. I'd hoped to see The Coral Beach on the Isle of Skye[1] featured. In retrospect the bits are maybe a bit large[2] to be called "sand".

I'm sure it's very much frowned upon these days but somewhere I have a 35mm film canister full of the coral fragments.

[1] https://www.isleofskye.com/skye-guide/top-ten-skye-walks/cor... [2] https://www.isleofskye.com/skye-guide/top-ten-skye-walks/cor...

I’ve had a sand collection for many years. I keep small vials on my shelf. From the Namib desert, to the slope of Mt Fuji, to Alaskan tundra. It’s a fun way to catalog places I’ve been.

I come from a island where its common to pain with sand. About one hundred beach, around two hundred colors, green is hard to make.

I learned that local sand composition is very affected by local geology.

• jandrese

  today at 6:45 PM

  I mean it makes sense that the sand is made of the same stuff as your local rocks, that's where it came from. Sure it washes around a bit in the surf but it's not like it's floating around the world on the ocean currents, at least not in massive quantities. I'm sure there are bits stuck in driftwood or whatnot but the vast majority should sink to the bottom.

This is just amazing to look at. Incredible, that there are shells as little as grains of sand.

These pictures would make great wallpapers.

I remember reading about a case where a murderer was tied to the crime scene just by analysing the quality of soil on his shoes.

It seemed far fetched then, but after seeing these pictures it really makes sense.

This is fantastic! Excellent share. Though I object vigorously to its exclusion of any beach in California. Scandalous!

No sand from Brazil with such a huge coastline?

• jolt42

  today at 6:25 PM

  Only one from Mexico, definitely need more.

  • dylan604

    today at 7:41 PM

    I'm sure they'd be more than happy to use any samples you might want to go to the expense of acquiring and sending to them.

Very neat, never thought about how different beaches are. Like the sites theme, easy to read as well.

• functional_dev

  today at 6:55 PM

  I learned recently that white sand is mostly parrotfish poop... they eat coral and then it becomes sand

This is quality content! A peek into the real wonders of the world and not the usual opinionated slop we are getting way too used to.