Hello again! For those of you who don’t remember me, my name is Alyssa and I am currently an Applied Marine Science graduate student at CSU Monterey Bay. As a part of my Marine Ecological Systems class, I have been testing out my foldscope on class field trips and weekend adventures.
Ever since my first geology course in undergrad, I have been fascinated by the composition of sand.
There is no doubt in my mind that Big Sur, CA is home to the most spectacular arrangements of purple sand. Yes you read that right, PURPLE SAND ! Still don’t believe me?
Your eyes are definitely not fooling you. The purple sand comes from the manganese garnet deposits that lie within the cliffs along the Big Sur coastline. Erosion of the surrounding rock formations create intricate displays of purple sand across several Big Sur beaches.
While on a hiking trip at
Andrew Molera State Park
, I collected a pinch of purple sand to look at beneath my foldscope. The image to my left reveals what a few granules of the purple sand looks like under my foldscope. In the largest granule pictured, you can see large streaks of light purple. The darker granules did not show up well in my iPhone image, however with the naked eye they were a dark purple/red color.
As a quick comparison, I took my foldscope with me on an afternoon walk at Carmel Beach – roughly 25 miles north of Andrew Molera State Park. Carmel Beach is home to a mile-long stretch of soft, white sand.
Beneath my foldscope, my sand sample from Carmel Beach appears to be nearly colorless! Sand is often composed of quartz – which can provide an explanation for the colorless nature of these granules. Carmel Beach is lined with small sandstone cliffs, that are primarily composed of quartz and feldspar. Despite being colorless, these granules still look pretty neat!
Another fun foldscope success! Stay tuned 🙂