[HN Gopher] Explore the Hidden World of Sand
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Explore the Hidden World of Sand
Author : RAAx707
Score : 276 points
Date : 2026-03-23 18:59 UTC (5 days ago)
(HTM) web link (magnifiedsand.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (magnifiedsand.com)
| blakesterz wrote:
| 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
| bronlund wrote:
| 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.
| jonathaneunice wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| https://sandatlas.org/desert-sand/
|
| Ask and ye shall receive.
| amelius wrote:
| I would also like to see what happens if various types of
| sand are heated to various temperatures.
| kalcode wrote:
| Very neat, never thought about how different beaches are. Like
| the sites theme, easy to read as well.
| functional_dev wrote:
| I learned recently that white sand is mostly parrotfish poop...
| they eat coral and then it becomes sand
| TechIsCool wrote:
| 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.
| jhaile wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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?
| phyzome wrote:
| Because I'd like to look at the image I'm looking at at the
| moment I'm looking at it.
|
| I found the page frustrating and overwhelming and had to
| close it.
| max_ wrote:
| 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.
| coldcity_again wrote:
| 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...
| metaltyphoon wrote:
| No sand from Brazil with such a huge coastline?
| jolt42 wrote:
| Only one from Mexico, definitely need more.
| dylan604 wrote:
| 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.
| SegfaultSeagull wrote:
| This is fantastic! Excellent share. Though I object vigorously to
| its exclusion of any beach in California. Scandalous!
| _ache_ wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| technothrasher wrote:
| 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.
| wafflemaker wrote:
| This is just amazing to look at. Incredible, that there are
| shells as little as grains of sand.
|
| These pictures would make great wallpapers.
| rationalist wrote:
| 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.)
| realslimjd wrote:
| But is it legal to take a microscope to the beach?
| rationalist wrote:
| 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.
| kickopotomus wrote:
| 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.
| dylan604 wrote:
| You may think it is pedantic, but it's not dissimilar to
| those that think "no cop, no stop" is valid. Just because you
| didn't get caught doesn't mean it's not violating the
| regulations.
|
| The spirit of the law is not "large quantities", it's to get
| people used to the idea of letting nature be and not taking
| something just because you want to. If you come across a rock
| that you think is interesting and keep it for yourself,
| you're denying the next person to discover it on their trip.
| If you take a rock or two or maybe three, then so does the
| next person, and the next, well, you get how math works. So
| since people can't be trusted to not take, there exists an
| official policy that says you can't.
| rmunn wrote:
| I think you partially misunderstood the previous comment.
| The "that's simply the nature of going to a beach" line
| refers to how, when you get home, you'll find your sandals,
| swimsuit, etc. covered in little grains of sand. But any
| police officer who tried to charge someone with taking sand
| from the beach because they sat down on the beach and some
| grains of sand clung to their clothing... would be
| completely overstepping the intent of the law (and would
| get _severely_ reprimanded by any sane judge who got handed
| the case, just prior to said judge dismissing the case with
| prejudice).
|
| Now, scooping up a handful of sand and sticking it in a
| vial _would_ be against the law in many places, though I
| imagine a researcher asking for permission would probably
| be granted permission in most of those places.
| fc417fc802 wrote:
| I doubt a researcher would ask for permission for single
| vial and I rather doubt anyone has ever been prosecuted
| for that. At least in any sane jurisdiction. The problem
| is people who think "since I'm stopping by that river
| tomorrow anyway why don't I pack a tarp and shovel and
| save purchasing sand from the hardware store for my new
| patio".
|
| I'm not sure what the situation is for rocks but given a
| relatively unpopulated beach if I see a neat agate or
| other mineral I'm definitely taking it with me. If
| everyone did the same the environment wouldn't be any
| worse off.
| DoctorOetker wrote:
| I believe kickopotomus just meant that whenever you go to
| the beach, and later return, you inevitably have some sand
| in your shoes, socks, b-crack, pants, etc... in this
| context your statement reads bizarre as if people are
| guilty of crimes just because some _irritating_ sand
| decides to hitchhike in your socks...
| dyauspitr wrote:
| Maybe with sand but you're not even allowed to take sticks or
| even small rocks out of parks because if a 100 million took
| out just one every year it would have a significant impact.
| bandofthehawk wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| If you click into one of the examples they have a photo of a
| hand holding a sample plus photos of the beach.
| Animats wrote:
| 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
| fzeindl wrote:
| Since sand is a non-renewable resource that is needed for
| construction, there's a lot of illegal activity going on.
|
| In India, illegal sand mining is the country's largest organized
| criminal activity.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_theft
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_sand_trade
| SoleilAbsolu wrote:
| This was part of the plot of an Elementary (modern-day Sherlock
| Holmes in NYC with Jonny Lee Miller & Lucy Liu) episode called
| Sand Trap.
|
| https://cbselementary.fandom.com/wiki/Sand_Trap#Plot
| dfxm12 wrote:
| Importing construction sand was a plot in the HBO series
| Barry as well.
| dyauspitr wrote:
| Just our luck that desert sand doesn't work for this because we
| have essentially endless amounts of it. Instead people are
| destroying pristine river banks.
| zahlman wrote:
| > and roughly 700,000,000,000 cubic meters of beach on Earth.
|
| I wonder how they determine the average depth of beach sand?
| jl6 wrote:
| I imagine you'd go digging on a few sample beaches and then
| make an assumption about how representative those beaches are.
|
| Think where we'd be without sand!
| nmstoker wrote:
| I love this site - it has been listed before, quite a while back,
| I seem to remember.
|
| Seeing it again, with how powerful phones are and what good macro
| cameras they often have now, identifying sand seems like it would
| be a fun ML + mobile app project.
| 7373737373 wrote:
| I wish there existed a cheap sorting machine that could sort or
| arrange these grains by color
| bjelkeman-again wrote:
| It gets even better putting the sand from the shoreline with
| water under a microscope. Lots of little things moving around.
| fifilura wrote:
| I always wondered how many of the translucent stones were
| actually worn down shards of beer bottles.
|
| I love this page. What the internet was made for. I sometimes
| wish they had closed down development after creating this page
| and the page with detailed information about Star Trek TNG
| episodes.
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(page generated 2026-03-28 23:01 UTC)