What is sand made of?

The main component of sand particles is the mineral ‘quartz’. It contains mostly silicon and oxygen. This is the most abundant type of sand particle.

The second most frequent type of sand is made of calcium carbonate. Sand can contain other minerals, soil, rare stones, and other substances which affect the colour, shape, size, and other properties.

This is why sand particles can be big, small, round, jagged, white, brown, red, green pink, black and more.

Some beaches in the Canary Islands have black sand. Papakolea Beach in Hawaii has green sand. Beaches with pink sand can be found in the US, Greece, Italy, Indonesia and more.