FOR THE Love OF Sand! Become a Psammophile!
Rock&Gem Magazine|May 2023
While rock and mineral collectors often seek the biggest crystal ever, true wonders exist at the microscopic level.
JIM BRACE-THOMPSON
FOR THE Love OF Sand! Become a Psammophile!

A single teaspoon of sand from a beach, riverbed or desert dune can hold a world you never imagined when viewed through the lens of a microscope. A whole community of fellow enthusiasts exists for exchanging these tiny bits of amazing nature from around the world. You can join that community. But beware. Once you start, it's all too easy to get hooked!

SAND COLLECTORS DEFINED

People who are fascinated by and who collect sand wherever they can are called psammophiles, or arenophiles. The term psammophile is derived from the Greek words psammo (sand) and phile (lover of). If you prefer Latin over Greek, you would be an arenophile.

True-blue sand lovers not only carry ziplock baggies to scoop up samples, they dump out shoes after a walk across a beach or desert dune to see what treasures they may have gathered.

WHAT IS SAND? 

A heap of sand is a collection of microminerals and/or microfossils with a grain size residing between silt and gravel. Precisely, "very fine" sand has a grain size of 0.0625 to 0.125 mm, and "very coarse" sand has a grain size of up to 2+ mm.

Sand often starts from rocks that weather and decompose. Sand is generally divided into three basic types derived from different sources.

この記事は Rock&Gem Magazine の May 2023 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は Rock&Gem Magazine の May 2023 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

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