# Are beach sand and desert sand the same thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 9, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479 "2010-06-09T00:27:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479/21 "2010-06-09T18:16:10Z")
> [@phreesh](#): > > Is desert sand usually ancient ocean sand or is it more decomposed organic matter? I also understand that I may be totally misusing some terms in the last sentence. While doubtless some deserts contain ancient ocean sand, it is generally wind abraded (as Dibble mentioned in passing above). I don’t believe there is significant organic matter in general. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479/22 "2010-06-09T18:25:32Z")
> [@phreesh](#): > > Is desert sand usually ancient ocean sand or is it more decomposed organic matter? Very little sand of any sort is organic matter. Tropical beach sand often has a significant fraction of inorganic carbonates of biological origigin, if that’s what you mean. But desert sand can also contain this, although it’s usually mostly silica. But the silica can come from lots of sources - weathered out of igneous & metamorphic rocks, weathered out of sandstones and other sediments, deposited by rivers which themselves eroded rocks… The sandstones I mentioned \*may \*be ancient ocean sands (although even that is usually from rivers - as a rule, quartz sand (the most common kind by far) indicates origin on a continent, somewhere, and has its _ultimate_ origin in igneous rocks like granite) but they are just as likely to be ancient beaches, ancient rivers or ancient desert sandunes, reworked. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479/23 "2010-06-09T18:45:38Z")
Does sand continue to be weathered into smaller and smaller components, only to be replaced by new sand, or is reaching a sand-sized particle the last step in the process? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479/24 "2010-06-09T19:00:43Z")
Ok, so which kind of sand is best for glass making? Beach or desert sand? Are some regions better than others? For example, I lived in Cape Cod Massachusetts for 8 years. Sandwich glass is made in that area and highly collected. _What’s so great about their sand?_ a five volume set of books on sandwich glass. Collectors love this stuff. > **[The glass industry in Sandwich: Barlow, Raymond E: 9780961016616: Amazon.com:...](https://www.amazon.com/glass-industry-Sandwich-Raymond-Barlow/dp/0961016612)** > > The glass industry in Sandwich \[Barlow, Raymond E\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The glass industry in Sandwich > [@](#): > > The Glass Industry in Sandwich is a five volume series of books presenting a factual account of glass produced by the glass companies that were located in Sandwich, Massachusetts, between 1825 and 1922. Included are color photos of over 2300 Sandwich glass objects that have been thoroughly researched and authenticated by Sandwich glass experts Raymond E. Barlow and Joan E. Kaiser, who have worked together for twenty-two years. Recognized by the antiques industry as the “Bible” in its field, this magnificent set of books has become a trusted reference used by glass curators of major museums as well as by early American glass collectors, antiques dealers and auctioneers. Each photo is accompanied by dimensions, approximate time of production, and captions that detail ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479/25 "2010-06-09T19:02:38Z")
Other than the expense, one problem with transporting sand from a desert to a distant beach is that you might not just be transporting sand. You might also be introducing plants or critters to a new environment. That has been known to not work out so well. Think kudzu in the southern US or rabbits in Australia. Any precautions you take to not transport plants or animals with the sand will, of course, add to the cost of transporting the sand. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479/26 "2010-06-09T19:13:37Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Does sand continue to be weathered into smaller and smaller components, only to be replaced by new sand, or is reaching a sand-sized particle the last step in the process? The answer is: it varies. It may continue to get ground to silt, or it may be consolidated into sandstone, depending on environment. It’s a crapshoot. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479/27 "2010-06-09T19:22:48Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > Many (most?) deserts don’t have the iconic big dunes made out of loose sand, and actually have extremely hard-packed soil. In some deserts the sand is practically cemented together. I don’t know the exact case in Iraq, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were large areas of the country where the sand was hard enough that you couldn’t dig it up by hand. I have seen desktop computers come back from that region. The stuff I saw was “sand” that made it’s way into the case. It is a very fine, almost talcum powder in coarseness, slightly off-white (towards the tan or yellow direction) colored material. I imagine that even when restricted to talking about Iraq/Kuwait, there is probably a variety of different sand types. If I may be allowed to guess, a really fine sand might leak out of sand bags fairly quickly, meaning you would be trying to fill and refill sandbags daily. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479/28 "2010-06-09T19:42:46Z")
As has already been said, the composition and size of the sand varies from place to place. Still, generally speaking, beach sand is produced not by parrots, but mostly by inland rivers bringing sand downland and the erosion in the ocean itself. Because beach sand is ground very often against other sand grains, it’s very smooth - under a microscope, it looks round. That’s why, when there’s the annual sand sculpture contest on the German beach of the North Sea, they actually do bring in truckloads of river sand - from upstream, when the grains have not rubbed against each other often enough to be worn smooth, only to break down into a certain size, so under a microscope, river sand looks square, like a box. Now imagine stacking 1 000 000 balls upon each other, and 1 000 000 little squares. (Exaggerating). Obviously the latter will stick together better (after wetting them), meaning that the sculptures will last longer. As for deserts: among climate scientists, desert is a term for an area with low waterfall. They distinguish further between cold and hot deserts. Besides the Sahara with lots of sand, there’s the Atacama in Peru, where the rain stops on both sides before it reaches the plain. Or the plain in Manchuria that has almost no water. The figure I commonly hear is that the Sahara is 30% sand, the rest is mountains, big rocks, big pebbles, and small pebbles. Erosion = wind turns one into the other over time, and then carries the sand away elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479/29 "2010-06-09T23:48:30Z")
Whenever someone says "if you were stranded on a desert island… " it strikes me that they should be saying “deserted island.” As far as I know, there is no such thing as a desert island. I understand that “desert” can be used as a sort of synonym for “desolate,” but it isn’t commonly, and people who say “desert island” are usually trying to evoke a lush South Seas type of place. Sorry if this is a slight hijack. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479/30 "2010-06-10T02:37:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Whenever someone says "if you were stranded on a desert island… " it strikes me that they should be saying “deserted island.” As far as I know, there is no such thing as a desert island. I understand that “desert” can be used as a sort of synonym for “desolate,” but it isn’t commonly, and people who say “desert island” are usually trying to evoke a lush South Seas type of place. Sorry if this is a slight hijack. While I agree with you that it should be “deserted island”, I’d just like to point out that Aruba really does feel like a “desert island”. it’s not at all like your idea of a lush rainforested Caribbean island – it feels more as if somebody cut out a chunk of southern Utah desert and dropped it in the Caribbean – it’s got sandy soil, sparse vegetation (some of which is _cactus_), free-roaming goats, and limestone caves. It’s also got relatively low rainfall and an incredible unidirectional wind. It feels more like Arches National Park than Puerto rico. end of hijack (I hope) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479/31 "2010-06-10T03:37:43Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > Whenever someone says "if you were stranded on a desert island… " it strikes me that they should be saying “deserted island.” As far as I know, there is no such thing as a desert island. I understand that “desert” can be used as a sort of synonym for “desolate,” but it isn’t commonly, and people who say “desert island” are usually trying to evoke a lush South Seas type of place. Sorry if this is a slight hijack. While this is true in terms of current usage, it’s kind of like the person who objected to referring to vision correction by lenses set in a frame with bows supported by the bridge of the nose and ears as “glasses” since the lenses were plastic. An unpopulated island and a desolate area of arid countryside are both ‘desert’ from the original usage of the word, as past participle of ‘to desert’ meaning to abandon, to leave unpopulated. After Katrina much of the population deserted New Orleans. In origin, it means, roughly, unpopulated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beach-sand-and-desert-sand-the-same-thing/542479.md?page=1)