Thread: where does sand come from?

A six year old told me its sea cucumber poop

That's pretty much all there is to it.

^^hahaha.

Erosion. Google yay! =) solved.

There are different kinds of sand. Most of it is erosion of rocks like quartz and basalt lava, etc....
However, the kid is partly right, I don't know about sea cucumbers but i do know that there is a big fish I think it is called a parrotfish because it has a beak and it munches on coral and it poops out the white sand we find on tropical beaches. Yes, the white sand is not eroded coral, but digested coral. It is shit.

Interesting, didn't know that Dannon.
Here's a bit more info.

Bioerosion of coral reefs generates the fine and white coral sand characteristic of tropical islands. The coral is converted to sand by internal bioeroders such as algae, fungi, bacteria (microborers) and sponges (Clionaidae), bivalves (including Lithophaga), sipunculans, polychaetes, acrothoracican barnacles and phoronids, generating extremely fine sediment with diameters of 10 to 100 micrometres. External bioeroders include sea urchins (such as Diadema) and chitons. These forces in concert produce a great deal of erosion. Sea urchin erosion of calcium carbonate has been reported in some reefs at annual rates exceeding 20 kg/m².
Fish also erode coral while eating algae. Parrotfish cause a great deal of bioerosion using well developed jaw muscles, tooth armature, and a pharyngeal mill, to grind ingested material into sand-sized particles. Bioerosion of coral reef aragonite by parrotfish can range from 1017.7±186.3 kg/yr (0.41±0.07 m³/yr) for Chlorurus gibbus and 23.6±3.4 kg/yr (9.7 10-³±1.3 10-³ m²/yr) for Chlorurus sordidus (Bellwood, 1995).

Water and wind and grinding agains other rocks breaks off pieces of the rock, which create sand. Sea cucumbers do, in fact poop sand, but only because they eat it first.

Originally Posted by ninja9578

Water and wind and grinding agains other rocks breaks off pieces of the rock, which create sand. Sea cucumbers do, in fact poop sand, but only because they eat it first.

Did you even read my post? It clearly shows you're wrong.
Sand is created by erosion of rocks. I thought any 5 year old would know that.
But it is also created by animals eating coral reefs.

Originally Posted by tommo

Did you even read my post? It clearly shows you're wrong.
Sand is created by erosion of rocks. I thought any 5 year old would know that.
But it is also created by animals eating coral reefs.

What the hell are you talking about?

Water and wind and grinding agains other rocks breaks off pieces of the rock, which create san

Thats what erosion is, I thought any 5 year old would know that.

And ninas right, I forgot about plants, they erode things too

Originally Posted by ninja9578

And ninas right, I forgot about plants, they erode things too

It's not so much that they erode things, but seaweed contains a lot of calcium and when it dies and decays the sand is formed (same as other marine life)

haha , maybe I wasn't clear. What I meant was

Water and wind and grinding agains other rocks breaks off pieces of the rock, which create sand.

Everyone knows this. At least I thought so, before the OP. And cspicer already said that.

Sea cucumbers do, in fact poop sand, but only because they eat it first.

Originally Posted by tommo

But it is also created by animals eating coral reefs.

Which I gave info for in my post.
And I don't think sea cucumbers eat sand. They usually eat mud or plankton.

Basically I wasn't arguing with the erosion thing lol Just the sea cucumber bit. Although it's not only sea cucumbers that do it of course.

i was about to say that when electricity makes contact with glass it makes sand but its the other was around

I've got one more to add to the list.

Seaweed.

Haha, what went wrong with tommo's brain?

Anyway, worth adding; the most important thing is the feedback. Water won't do very much when it slams against the cliffs, but if the water itself has sand and rocks in, it's clearly going to be far more potent.

I don't think you get much freeze-thawing near the sea (due to the salt), but I think chemical effects can help the erosion, too... I recall something along the lines of the growth of salt crystals acting in a freeze-thawey way; that might not be accurate though.

I thought tommo was trying to make the point that he answered the question pretty thoroughly, and then ninja posted the same thing right under him, possibly without reading above replies. It's a big assumption though.