The Amazing Life of Sand | Deep Look

There's a story in every grain of sand: tales of life and death, fire and water. If you scooped up a handful of sand from every beach, you'd have a history of the world sifting through your fingers.

DEEP LOOK: a new ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Get a new perspective on our place in the universe and meet extraordinary new friends. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small.

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---+ How does sand form?

Sand can be anything that has been worn down until it’s reduced to some tiny, essential fragment of what it once was: a granite pebble from the mountains; coral from the sea; obsidian from a volcano; even skeletons of microscopic sea animals. It's also a technical term. Bigger than sand, that’s gravel, smaller? Silt.

By studying the composition and texture of sand, geologists can reconstruct its incredible life history. “There’s just a ton of information out there, and all of it is in the sand,” said Mary McGann, a geologist at the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, CA.

McGann recently took part in a comprehensive research project mapping sand’s journey into and throughout San Francisco Bay.

Patrick Barnard, another USGS geologist who helped oversee the project, said that it will help scientists understand how local beaches are changing over time. In particular, Barnard wants to understand why beaches just south of San Francisco Bay are among the most rapidly eroding beaches in the state.

From 2010-2012, Barnard and his team sampled beaches, outcrops, rivers and creeks to track sand’s journey around the bay. They even collected sand from the ocean floor. The researchers then carefully analyzed the samples to characterize the shapes, sizes, and chemical properties of the sand grains.

Barnard said the information provides a kind of fingerprint, or signature, for each sample that can then be matched to a potential source. For example, certain minerals may only come from the Sierra Mountains or the Marin Headlands.

“If we’ve covered all of the potential sources, and we know the unique signature of the sand from these different sources, and we find it on a beach somewhere, then we basically know where it came from,” explained Barnard.

And those species aren’t the only things finding their way into the sand. Manmade materials can show up there, too. McGann has found metal welding scraps and tiny glass spheres (commonly sprinkled on highways to make road stripes reflective) in sand samples from around the bay.

“All of these things can get washed into our rivers or our creeks, or washed off the road in storm drains,” explained McGann. “Eventually they end up in, for example, San Francisco Bay.”

By piecing together all of these clues – the information found in the minerals, biological material and man made objects that make up sand – the researchers ended up with a pretty clear picture of how sand travels around San Francisco Bay.

Some sands stay close to home. Rocky sand in the Marin Headlands comes from nearby bluffs, never straying far from its source.

Other sands travel hundreds of miles. Granite from the Sierra Nevada mountains careens down rivers and streams on a century-long sojourn to the coast.

In fact, much of the sand in the Bay Area comes from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, with local watersheds also playing an important role in transporting sand to the beach.

Although this project focused on San Francisco Bay, the same techniques could be used to study other coastal systems, he added, revealing the incredible life stories of sand from around the world.

---+ More Deep Look episodes:

What Happens When You Zap Coral With The World's Most Powerful X-ray Laser?

These 'Resurrection Plants' Spring Back to Life in Seconds

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---+ About KQED

KQED, an NPR and PBS affiliate in San Francisco, CA, serves Northern California and beyond with a public-supported alternative to commercial TV, Radio and web media.

Funding for Deep Look is provided in part by PBS Digital Studios and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Deep Look is a project of KQED Science, which is also supported by HopeLab, the David B. Gold Foundation, the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the Dirk and Charlene Kabcenell Foundation, the Vadasz Family Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Smart Family Foundation and the members of KQED.
#deeplook

[Tlactl]

if you think about it, if you throw the sand or move it somewhere else, it could end up miles away from where it was going to end up before which makes *you* part of its story

[cocodriloco]

The natives were right. Stories of life are written in everything in existence. In trees, in coral, even sand. Layers of dirt are like piles of paper filled with information of the past when you look at them through the lens of an Archaeologist. Itś really fascinating how the most simple and seemingly insignificant things could hold so much significance.

[sycamorre]

Is sand called sand because it's between sea and land?

[kendalk.]

Stellar footage. This concept is fascinating, and I'm
So
Glad I found your Chanel. Seriously, gorgeous stuff. The kind of artful education I'm looking for.

[scarletgracevictoria]

I want to know every grain of sands story now .-.

[AngeLyzZavalaAguilera]

This video makes me want to start collecting sand ._.

[Himark]

How does this channel not have a million subscribers? The quality of videos surpasses most of the naturalistic channels. Rivals that of BBC and Discovery.

[mym]

Finally, a channel that focuses on the small things in life, and explains the beauty of the things we don't see everyday. These videos are short and simple, and are packed with information that I can enjoy. Thank you for your effort, and I suspect that this channel will start booming in popularity any time soon.

[veranet]

Great, now I'm looking up "brine shrimp poop".

[GodOfReality]

I'm starting to wish these little shorts were in fact the intro to multi-hour long documentaries. :( I want to learn morrreeee

Really enjoying the high quality videos, it reminds me of the light reading I would do when I was a little kid. I used to read so much about random animals and facts about the nature kingdom. If I could suggest a topic, I'd love to learn more about the origin of household cats, and their behaviour to use litter. Did they all originate from deserts?

[MissMartianDCAU]

Anakin Skywalker made 42 separate accounts to dislike this video

[KQEDDeepLook]

*The Amazing Life of Sand*

There’s a story in every grain of sand: tales of life and death, fire and water. If you scooped up a handful of sand from every beach, you’d have a history of the world sifting through your fingers. From mountain boulders to the shells of tiny ocean creatures, follow the journey that sand takes through thousands of years across entire continents to wind up stuck between your toes.



Presented by PBS Digital Studios and KQED. 

[mythofreadiness]

Producer: we need music to help convey feeling for sand/silt
Composer: ever play pikmin?
Producer : Brilliant!

[MUtley-rfvg]

These videos are perfect. I can't believe I missed this channel up to now.

[nvp]

Every of Deep Look videos is just like...3 minutes but it gives you just a plethora of knowledge

[MattiaRighetti]

This channel is so underrated! These videos are just perfection! I enjoy so much watching them

[tipoloco]

never thought sand could be so interesting..keep up the good videos guys

[ammitthedevourer]

Honestly, it's everyday phenomena like this that give me a reason to keep living. Even if life seems unbearable some days, I find solace in knowing how wondrous the natural world I live in is. If I died, I wouldn't ever be able to watch a grasshopper groom itself again, or look at tiny fossils under a pocket microscope, or eavesdrop on birdsong. Sorry for the sappy, semi-depressing comment, but it really does give me a sense of fulfillment and unbridled joy to pay attention to little natural things like this. Keep up the amazing videos; you guys deserve way more subscribers than about 452K!

[alefiyavohra]

This is the best video amongst your video i've seen till now

[doxielain]

This series wins on all fronts. Beautiful, thoughtful, well-produced, perfectly narrated... . I will be sad when I finish the archive. Yay Public Media!