July 19, 2011 Magnified Beach Sand
 

http://cellar.org/2011/sand-grains.jpg

Beach sand magnified to 250 times its real size

Here is some amazing microphotography by Dr Gary Greenberg who shows how beach sand grains look magnified to 250 times the real size.

This crystal of sand on the image below (in the middle) is surrounded by bits of coral, shell, and volcanic material.

http://todayilearned.co.uk/2011/07/1...ize/#more-2283

beautiful!

I grew up enjoying the beaches of southern Lake Michigan. Its really funny that this IOTD showed up today because I was just at the beach this Saturday watching the Gary Air Show with my Dad and I was wondering what the sand was composed of...figuring it wasn't shells and such.

So I just checked and found out that it is mostly minerals like quartz, feldspars, garnets, magnetite, and biotite. Heres a close up photo.

On the beaches of Maine, where I grew up , the grains of sand are a little bigger.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/21/33...6ccc2c28_o.jpg

Oooh, that reminds me of Schoodic Point...I need to find the pic of me on the rock with the water crashing around me.

On the beaches of Texas, the sand is covered with jellyfish and tar balls.

Jellyrabbits and tar babies. ;)

and yet, and yet... the "no-see-ums"

What is that thing? An alien spaceship?

Shipwreck. Tugboat, actually. It's been sitting there my entire life. I think it wrecked in the 50's.
link

Calimama, thanks for stepping up to the image of the day plate recently. I have been enjoying them. :)

What exactly is hotlinking?

I saved the picture to my desktop and then used the manage attachment section here to post it.

If that is hotlinking, then what should I have done instead?

I think monster's post has the hotlink. Yours is an attachment.

yes, i hotlinked. but I can still see the img. Are you guys getting a "do not hotlink" thingie?

I changed it anyway, sorry if that was the case. lazy monster was in the middle of some tax returns.