The light color sand in the video is mostly composed of grains of quartz. These tiny bits of quartz usually come from inland granite rocks that have been eroded and carried to the coast by rivers. . It’s amazing how uniform the beach sand looks, yet when you view it under a microscope you can see so many other colors. I was researching the sand composition of the beach where I took this sample, and the other sand grain colors seem to be due to minerals such as feldspar, mica, magnetite, garnet, etc. . If you can identify the colorful sand grains in the video, let me know in the comments! I would especially love to know what type of mineral forms the very dark sand grains. . The black sand in the second part of the video is mostly composed of volcanic materials. This is because the island where I recorded this video (La Palma, Spain) is of volcanic origin. . When lava from a volcanic eruption gets in contact with the ocean, it cools rapidly and breaks into small fragments. Over time, the waves little by little erode these lava fragments into tiny particles, forming black sand. . Although the sand looks very dark, under the microscope you can see grains of other colors. This is due to the presence of other minerals that ocean waves and wind have mixed with the volcanic sand. . Anyway, looking at beach sand under the microscope is like looking at a bunch of microscopic jewels. It’s so mesmerizing! . The first beach sand sample was from South Cape Beach State Park in Cape Cod, Massachusetts (USA). The second beach sand sample was from Playa de Charco Verde in La Palma, Canary Islands (Spain). For this video, I used a Leica ZOOM 200 stereoscope and an Olympus BX41 microscope at up to 100X magnification. #microscopy #microscope #beachsand #volcanicsand #lapalma #canaryislands #capecod #southcapebeach #drbioforever - @dr.bioforever