Microscopic View of Sand Grains

[Kdeus]

I just came across this article and thought it was very interesting. I hope it's okay to post the link. I also realize it's old. I had never given much thought to what a grain of sand looks like. Some of it looks like the specimens I've seen on here, only microscopic. Makes me want to check out my local beach and find a high powered microscope.

 

http://www.boredpanda.com/magnified-sand-grains-microscope-photography-dr-gary-greenberg/?media_id=sand-grains-under-microscope-gary-greenberg-4

[ynot]

 Neat pictures!

Thanks for bringing it here.

Tony

[aerogrower]

Pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.

[Rumi]

Very interesting photos indeed!  Foraminifera, echinoid spines, bryozoans, sponge spicules, and etc.  Most collectors of foraminifera regularly scrape thin samples from the white "fringe" that is left on a marine beach at high tide, often very productive of specimens.  These photos are quite similar to what one sees after screening washed residues of marine shales, the best source of microfossil material.  Sandstones do not disaggregate very well, unfortunately, but specimens from sandstone are typically not as well preserved as those from shales anyway, due to the higher energy regimens under which marine sandstones are typically formed.

 

I am currently working on samples of microfossils from a number of late Paleozoic, Cretaceous, and Holocene localities, and hope to post some images soon, once I'm fully recovered from a recent computer crash!

[verydeadthings]

If you're interested, here are two pictures taken at 1000x magnification, the first of a rutilated quartz grain from the deepwater gulf of mexico, the second a sponge spicule from an early oligocene limestone in SE Mississippi. You can also see some nannofossils around the sponge spicule.