Sand (disambiguation).

Sand dunes in the Idehan Ubari, Libya

Depiction of sands:
glass, dune, quartz,
volcanic, biogenic coral, pink coral,
volcanic, garnet, olivine.
Samples are from the Gobi Desert, Estonia, Hawaii and the mainland United States. (1×1 cm each)[1]

Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand
grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of soil or soil type; i.e., a soil containing more than 85
percent sand-sized particles by mass.[2]

The composition of sand varies, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland
continental settings and non-tropical coastal settings is silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), usually in the form of quartz.

Calcium carbonate is the second most common type of sand. One such example of this is aragonite, which has been created over the past 500
million years by various forms of life, such as coral and shellfish. It is the primary form of sand apparent in areas where reefs have dominated the
ecosystem for millions of years, as in the Caribbean. Somewhat more rarely, sand may be composed of calcium sulfate, such as gypsum and
selenite, as is found in places such as White Sands National Park and Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S.

Sand is a non-renewable resource over human timescales, and sand suitable for making concrete is in high demand.[3] Desert sand, although
plentiful, is not suitable for concrete. Fifty billion tons of beach sand and fossil sand are used each year for construction.[4]
Composition
Heavy minerals (dark) in a quartz beach sand (Chennai, India)
Sand from Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Utah. These are grains of quartz with a hematite coating providing the orange color.
Sand from Pismo Beach, California. Components are primarily quartz, chert, igneous rock, and shell fragments.

The exact definition of sand varies. The scientific Unified Soil Classification System used in engineering and geology corresponds to US Standard
Sieves, and defines sand as particles with a diameter of between 0.074 and 4.75 millimeters.[5] By another definition, in terms of particle size as
used by geologists, sand particles range in diameter from 0.0625 mm (or 1⁄16 mm) a volume of approximately 0.00012 cubic millimetres, to 2
mm, a volume of approximately 4.2 cubic millimetres, the difference in volumes being 34,688 measures difference.[6] Any particle falling within
this range of sizes is termed a sand grain. Sand grains are between gravel (with particles ranging from 2 mm up to 64 mm by the latter system,
and from 4.75 mm up to 75 mm in the former) and silt (particles smaller than 0.0625 mm down to 0.004 mm). The size specification between sand
and gravel has remained constant for more than a century, but particle diameters as small as 0.02 mm were considered sand under the Albert
Atterberg standard in use during the early 20th century. The grains of sand in Archimedes' The Sand Reckoner written around 240 BCE, were 0.02
mm in diameter. A 1938 specification of the United States Department of Agriculture was 0.05 mm.[7] A 1953 engineering standard published
by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials set the minimum sand size at 0.074 mm. Sand feels gritty when
rubbed between the fingers. Silt, by comparison, feels like flour.

ISO 14688 grades sands as fine, medium, and coarse with ranges 0.063 mm to 0.2 mm to 0.63 mm to 2.0 mm. In the United States, sand is
commonly divided into five sub-categories based on size: very fine sand (1⁄16 – 1⁄8 mm diameter), fine sand (1⁄8 mm – 1⁄4 mm), medium sand
(1⁄4 mm – 1⁄2 mm), coarse sand (1⁄2 mm – 1 mm), and very coarse sand (1 mm – 2 mm). These sizes are based on the Krumbein phi scale, where
size is Φ = -log2D; D being the particle size in mm. On this scale, for sand the value of Φ varies from −1 to +4, with the divisions between sub-cate-
gories at whole numbers.
Close up of black volcanic sand from Perissa, Santorini, Greece

The most common constituent of sand, in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal settings, is silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), usually
in the form of quartz, which, because of its chemical inertness and considerable hardness, is the most common mineral resistant to weathering.

The composition of mineral sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions. The bright white sands found in tropical
and subtropical coastal settings are eroded limestone and may contain coral and shell fragments in addition to other organic or organically
derived fragmental material, suggesting that sand formation depends on living organisms, too.[8] The gypsum sand dunes of the White Sands
National Park in New Mexico are famous for their bright, white color. Arkose is a sand or sandstone with considerable feldspar content, derived
from weathering and erosion of a (usually nearby) granitic rock outcrop. Some sands contain magnetite, chlorite, glauconite, or gypsum. Sands
rich in magnetite are dark to black in color, as are sands derived from volcanic basalts and obsidian. Chlorite-glauconite bearing sands are
typically green in color, as are sands derived from basaltic lava with a high olivine content. Many sands, especially those found extensively in
Southern Europe, have iron impurities within the quartz crystals of the sand, giving a deep yellow color. Sand deposits in some areas contain
garnets and other resistant minerals, including some small gemstones.