this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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This isn't any more true than it was 15 years ago when I first saw it on imgur. Those are close ups of small shells found in some tropical sand that have been separated from regular sand. Sand isn't fucking magic its small rocks.
Also white sand is fish poop.
And yet if you look at https://magnifiedsand.com/ it is insanely cool and not too different from the images in this post. I don't think that entire website is fraudulent. Glad I didn't see your comment first because it would've turned me off of even looking into this further. When I did look into it further, I was thrilled.
That is very heavily curated to make every picture interesting. Take a scoop from your nearest beach and it doesn't look anywhere near as dramatic. Sauce: I run a lab with fancy microscopes.
Your skin is infinitely more populated. Especially under your fingernails.
Interesting. Have you ever looked at beach sand specifically, under a microscope?
Yes, different types. Including glacial erosion, core samples and other sediments. Some are interesting, most are unremarkable to the layman. To academics, they are interesting for the story they tell (shat out of parrotfish for example)
That said, there are many types of beach sand, and within a single stretch of beach, different types as well, segregated by depth for example. They are very interesting for the story behind them. Sort of like how "everyone is unique".
The pictures that everyone is amazed at are relatively low magnification. If those grains were indeed so varied in their shape and colour, they would be easily visible to the naked eye.
Or Big Magnifier would have you believe.
White sand is calcium carbonate that has been eroded down to sand size particles. One way that happens is by parrot fish grinding it up, but weathering surely created the vast majority of it.
https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/why-parrotfish-poop-white-sand-5-358789/
“On the Great Barrier Reef, for example, researchers estimate that parrotfish are responsible for producing over 85% of the new sand generated annually.”
How does that compare to the quantity of sand already in existence? There was a long period of time (millions and millions of years) when there were no parrotfish, but billions of tons of calcium carbonate being eroded by the weather.
Could very well have been other animals over time.
Seeing as there's now a shortage of water-eroded sand, probably a good portion of it
Are you thinking of sand that's easily accessible (so not under many metres of sea) and suitable for use in concrete?
How much of all the planet's sand is on beaches frequenteeed by humans? Perhaps the interesting samples are over-represented but they're still neat.
What a stupid thing to bicker about. Good work, people on the internet. o_O
I didn't read it as bickering at all, just two people with an interest in sand, trying to get to the truth.
I might be extra cranky. I hate sand.
Fuck off, Anakin.
Then why keep reading about it and then lash out when you don't even understand what you are reading..? There was no bickering.
We've all got our hobbies
And how much of it is at least 50% microplastics now.
Hajabawhat now? How is white sand fish poop? Isn't it just sand? Or do you mean like the white particles in mixed sand are fish poop?
White sand is fish poop. https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/this-fish-eats-coral-and-poops-out-perfect-white-sand-5-354250/
“This fish produces white sand” is pretty far away from “all white sand is produced by fish”.
Shhhhh, let them believe. It is okay