Sand grains magnified 110-250 times reveal each grain is unique.
The tip of a spiral shell has broken off and become a grain of sand. After being repeatedly tumbled by action of the surf this spiral sand grain has become opalescent in character. It is surrounded by bits of coral, a pink shell fragment, a foram (a type of protozoa) and volcanic material. Photo copyright Dr. Gary Greenberg.
A handful of sand grains selected from a beach in Maui and arranged on a black background. Photo copyright Dr. Gary Greenberg.
Every grain of sand in the world is unique when viewed through a microscope.
Sand magnified 250 times. Photo copyright Dr. Gary Greenberg.
Sand Magnified. Photo by Yanping Wang.
Sand magnified 250 times. Photo via Tumblr.
Sand Magnified Around The World
The glacially deposited sands around Lake Winnibigoshish, Minnesota, contain abundant sediments from the igneous and metamorphic minerals of the Lake Superior basin. A sample includes pink garnets, green epidote, iron-rich red agates, black magnetite, and hematite. Photo copyright Dr. Gary Greenberg.
Magnified grains of star sand from Southern Japan, made up of the calcified shells of tiny organisms. Photo by Richard Mouser Williams.
Beautiful Framed Seashell
Neat idea for decorating a beach house, or any space you want a splash of the sea. The frame is 14″x17″, and yes, it’s a real seashell. Sold by Art.com for $119.99.
Magnified grains of Star Sand. Photo by Richard Mouser Williams.
Puffy Stars: Star-Shaped Sand Grains from Okinawa. These tiny foram, a type of protozoa, secrete beautiful star-shaped, calcium carbonate shells, or tests. Photo via sandgrains.com.
Coral sand magnified one-hundred times using transmission electron microscopy, brightfield mode. By Dr. David Maitland, Feltwell, UK, microscopyu.com
Many grains of sand are tiny crystals (shiny, flat-sided solids). Sand from Zushi Beach, Japan, contains what looks like a sapphire crystal. The crystal is larger than the surrounding grains and has survived eroding because of its hardness and quality. Photo copyright Dr. Gary Greenberg.
Fragments of baby sea urchin shells, magnified one-hundred times. Biogenic sand, formed from the remains of marine life, is the major ingredient of many tropical beaches. Via popgive.com. Originally found at “popgive.com/2009/01/tiny-work-of-art-in-each-grain-of-sand.html”
A magnified view of the tropical beach sand from the Caribbean island of St. John (U.S. Virgin Islands). The grains include porous fragments of brightly-colored corals, minute foraminiferan shells, fragments of sea shells and shiny, star-shaped sponge spicules. Originally found at “waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0704b.htm”
Sand Photographer Dr. Gary Greenberg
Every grain of sand is a jewel waiting to be discovered. That’s what Dr. Gary Greenberg found when he first turned his microscope on beach sand. Gemlike minerals, colorful coral fragments, and delicate microscopic shells reveal that sand comprises much more than tiny beige rocks.
Author and photographer Dr. Gary Greenberg is a visual artist who creatively combines art with science. He has a Ph.D. in biomedical research from University College London and holds 17 patents for high-definition 3-D light microscopes. Dr. Greenberg lives in Haiku, Hawaii.
Dr. Greenberg has published two books:
- A Grain of Sand: Nature’s Secret Wonder
- The Secrets of Sand: A Journey into the Amazing Microscopic World of Sand
The Universe Of Sand
Carl Sagan famously remarked “the total number of stars in the universe is greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches on the planet Earth.” University of Hawai’i researches estimate that the total number of ‘all’ grains of sand on the whole planet could be approximately 75 billion billion. Scientists still believe there are more stars in the Universe.
Speaking of planets: If a grain of sand represented an entire galaxy; so each grain of sand, or galaxy, contains 100’s of billions of stars, you would need to fill six rooms full of sand to contain all the galaxies in the known universe. If you drilled a tiny hole in one of the grains of sand, ‘our Milky Way universe,’ that would be the area that we have been capable of seaching for planets so far. About 2000 planets have been discovered so far.
I grew up on the beach, I walked and ran and drew the hot sand up around my cold wet body but I never knew from what it was made, how beatiful. Thank you for showing us.
PSALM 104:24-25
O LORD, HOW MANIFOLD ARE YOUR WORKS!
IN WISDOM YOU HAVE MADE THEM ALL. THE
EARTH IS FULL OF YOUR CREATIONS….THIS
GREAT AND WIDE SEA…..LIVING THINGS BOTH
SMALL AND GREAT!’
Do you know the difference, and why the two sands are different. I learned that fact in high school, way back in 1948. I’m 80 years old now, and am still’ learning about the space around us’
Isn’t God’s creation marvelous! His word tells us that he flung the stars out from his fingertips.
The sand at The Children’s Pool in La Jolla, San Diego has tiny, tiny seashells you can see them well with magnification.
This is a wonderful post! Thank you for sharing it.
What a magnificent God we have and serve! He makes all things beautiful in His time – and to realize that He made all these marvelous things for us to live around and enjoy – for our pleasure. Thank You, God of heaven and earth.
I have walked on sand most of my life always living near the sea, however I never had any idea of the beauty on which I was walking. Looks like a tray of precious jewels. Truly beautiful.
To see the world in a grain of sand……..
I forget the name of the poet, but find beauty in the words.
I spent many summers with my grandparents who live in Haiku, Maui. There’s a little beach just east of Paia that my cousins and I often swam and played at. I was always fascinated with the sand and collected many tiny, red and green sea shells (no bigger than the head of a pin) that I kept in a matchbox. If you look very closely at sand, you would be amazed! I really miss those times.
This site reminded me of an old song. ‘I Wish I Was’
Part of it goes:
I Wish I Was a grain of sand
Layin’ in a baby’s hand
Fallin’ like a diamond chain into the ocean.
A grain of sand is all I ever wanted to be
Lay me down and let the water wash over me.
Etc. A beautiful song, these words are just a part of it.
Nature is so beautiful!!
Often beauty is in small things.
The colors and the forms. But most of the time we walk on the sands. and don’t pay attention to it.
This shows there are thousands of planets, possibly, similar to ours and how small we are
so it really stretch’s our minds to realize there’s a great big universe to explore and know many generations from now we will.
This is really beautiful, who would have guessed that every beach I have walked on in the sand would have such a beautiful magnification. It is mind blowing. I loved it and I have walked on a lot of beaches from Michigan to Asia. Enjoyed it immensley. Thank you and God for his good work. We keep finding things of his work. I had open heart triple bypass and was in a coma for 18 days. During those days I died 3 times and was brought back 3 times with the help of my wonderful and great Doctor and help from above. On one of those times I died I was sent to heaven, where I was told it was not by time yet, by God, he is a fantastic man and makes you feel so calm and fantastic, you don’t want to come back to this earth. So if there are those of you who don’t believe, I know, I have seen Him and he almight.
I forgot to tell you that I have a pig valve in my chest and am held together by wires. Yet, here I am living because of a animal we only look at as a piece of meat.
I am mesmerized by the grains of sand.My daughter Caitlin frequents the sandy beach near where she lives with her family and they bring up such beautiful pieces of glass that poses no danger as the ocean has refined them.
And to think what lies in the magnification of a grain of sand…beyond belief!!!!!!
Amazing — How can anyone say there is no God!Thank you for reminding us.
A beach shoreline is one free place to explore…giving you delight ofthe beauty of nature found in these creatures. Source of inspiration to create art, poetry, simple joys of life.
Enjoy
This is toooooooooo good not to share. Sent to me by friends from Md. Very interesting for a Science class . Enjoy
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
Wow! I’m sending this to my daughter to show her 3-year-old boys and will take my late husband’s microscope w/me for them the next time I fly to Seattle.
How positively awe-inspiring! The URL came from a friend on a day when I was in a rather strange space. These magical photos have restored my faith and admiration in the mysteries of life.
THANK YOU.
After the shootings, terrible economy, and even more terrible politics I see/hear of every day, I receive a glimpse of this awesome beauty I never dreamed existed. It renewed me. Thank you Lord for reminding me that there are still beautiful things in our world if we just look.
Thank you for sharing these AMAZING pictures
with me. It reminds me of God`s promise to Abraham our forefather, ‘…….and I shall multiply your seed (offspring) as the dust of the earth (grains of sand) and if a man can count the grains of dust (sand) so will your seed be
counted. (A rough translation.)
~ and see what awaits us. Love photography – makes one actually ‘look’ – with fresh eyes, differently, whether it be beauty or a story needing telling. This photography is a bountiful blessing. Thank you, Dr. Greenberg, and all the photographers and artists that help us ‘see.’
God has made every thing in this universe unique and so beautiful. I am not surprised to learn that each grain of sand is unique. Just think of all the snow that has fallen this year and each flake is unique. Michael Rusiano, you are truly a unique person. You must be a blast to live with!!
God is good.
Never thought how beautiful even this small grain would be. God is awesome!
Every grain of sand is a desert unto itself.
If you drilled a tiny whole in one of the grains of sand, ‘our Milky Way universe,’ that would be the area that we have been…. one small point in this wonderful display…I think it should be ‘hole’. 🙂
If you drilled a tiny whole in one of the grains of sand, ‘our Milky Way universe,’ that would be the area that we have been capable of seaching for planets so far.
Amazing!!! Awesome!,,
I never knew they could be so beautiful! I didn’t think about it when i walk through the sand on the beach! Now i will feel bad when I do!
I have forwarded this to several people and they get a flag saying it is infected. I have viewed the link several times, and have not gotten a flag.
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!
You’ll never think about the beach in the same way again.
Words can not express the beautiy of the photo.
I love the pictures! You have done what I have wanted to do. My sand collection has samples of the east coast of the United States from Miami to Rhode Island. I also have many samples from the California coast. I have 12 boxes of little vials of sands from many other locations. I am a science teacher & have collected samples for years.i’ve done numerous labs using my samples. Wow! What a beautiful book this must be!
All of GODS Creation makes us So Thankful,
And to Know HE Loves us all, Trust in His
SON, to have eternal Life. Honor GOD. To have good crops, and blessing as a nation, we must
keep his WORD!
DP
If you have ever been to Hawaii’s Waikiki Beach, and brought home sand for your collection, just know that all that sand was barged in from California and Australia. The natural ‘sand’ is black volcanic, and if you have ever surfed there you would find out the hard way just how dangerous it really is when your knees hit a rock a 1/4 mile out!
I can not thank you enaugh and all of the cientists .i open my euys wide !! so wide in the inpacable beauty of this existance.
When in the beach I will concider myself so lucky to have this privilage
Thank you again.
As a docent at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, I learned that the sand that class begins with plays a big part in the color of the resultant glass.
For instance, one of the reasons crystal was ‘invented’ or discovered in Venice is the particulate make-up of the sands around the island of Murano. That becomes much clearer now that I have seen the tremendous variety of sand grains your pictures revealed. Thank you.
The Bible tells of a man names Abraham that is
being used as our example of trust and faith
in a Heavenly Creator…He tells Abraham that he shall be blessed as the sands of the sea shore..Now look what these little jewels are to us…Oh, how great is our God
Hope I enjoy!
SPEECHLESS!!!!!!!!!!!
hard to believe the beauty of sand grains….then again of this world we live in..
god bles us all
What a beautiful world we live in. God did such a magnificant thing when he created this world.
It is so sad that people want to destroy it.
Now that”s religion!
Magnificent – I never realized the many different types..what a wonder…
God’s endless wonders
Evolution makes such beautiful shells!