How does sand kind?

giant bumphead parrotfish

The enormous bumphead parrotfish is an incredible fish that may stay to be 40 years outdated, rising as much as 4 ft lengthy and 100 kilos. They use their massive head bumps to actually bump heads throughout aggressive shows, when massive numbers of fish mixture to spawn on a lunar cycle. The bumphead parrotfish excretes white sand, which it could produce on the price of a number of hundred kilos a 12 months!


The environmentalist Rachel Carson wrote, “In each curving seashore, in each grain of sand, there’s a story of the Earth.”

Sand comes from many areas, sources, and environments. Sand varieties when rocks break down from weathering and eroding over 1000’s and even thousands and thousands of years. Rocks take time to decompose, particularly quartz (silica) and feldspar.

Typically beginning 1000’s of miles from the ocean, rocks slowly journey down rivers and streams, continuously breaking down alongside the best way. As soon as they make it to the ocean, they additional erode from the fixed motion of waves and tides.

The tan shade of most sand seashores is the results of iron oxide, which tints quartz a lightweight brown, and feldspar, which is brown to tan in its unique kind. Black sand comes from eroded volcanic materials reminiscent of lava, basalt rocks, and different dark-colored rocks and minerals, and is usually discovered on seashores close to volcanic exercise. Black-sand seashores are frequent in Hawaii, the Canary Islands, and the Aleutians.

The by-products of dwelling issues additionally play an vital half in creating sandy seashores. Bermuda’s preponderance of pleasantly pink seashores outcomes from the perpetual decay of single-celled, shelled organisms referred to as foraminifera.

Much less frequent however no much less inviting seashores, devoid of quartz as a supply of sand, depend on a wholly totally different ecologic course of. The well-known white-sand seashores of Hawaii, for instance, truly come from the poop of parrotfish. The fish chew and scrape algae off of rocks and useless corals with their parrot-like beaks, grind up the inedible calcium-carbonate reef materials (made principally of coral skeletons) of their guts, after which excrete it as sand. On the identical time that it helps to take care of a various coral-reef ecosystem, parrotfish can produce a whole bunch of kilos of white sand every year!

So the subsequent time you unfurl your seashore towel down by the shore, ponder the sand beneath you, which, as Rachel Carson mentioned, is telling you a narrative concerning the Earth. It’s possible you’ll be about to comfortably nestle down within the stays of million-year-old rocks. Then once more, chances are you’ll quickly come to relaxation upon an limitless heap of parrotfish poop.

What’s a glass sponge?

a glass sponge

Probably the most well-known glass sponge is a species of Euplectella, proven right here within the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Generally referred to as the “Venus flower basket,” this sponge builds its skeleton in a manner that entraps a sure species of crustacean inside for all times.


Glass sponges within the class Hexactinellida are animals generally discovered within the deep ocean. Their tissues include glass-like structural particles, referred to as spicules, which are made from silica (therefore their title). Some species of glass sponges produce extraordinarily massive spicules that fuse collectively in lovely patterns to kind a “glass home”—a fancy skeleton that always stays intact even after the sponge itself dies. The skeleton of the glass sponge, along with numerous chemical substances, gives protection in opposition to many predators. Nonetheless, some starfish are recognized to feed on these uncommon creatures of the deep.

Most glass sponges stay connected to laborious surfaces and eat small micro organism and plankton that they filter from the encompassing water. Their intricate skeletons present many different animals with a house.

Probably the most well-known glass sponge is a species of Euplectella, referred to as the “Venus flower basket,” which builds its skeleton in a manner that entraps a sure species of crustacean inside for all times. This sponge typically homes two small, shrimp-like Stenopodidea, a male and a feminine, who stay out their lives contained in the sponge. The crustaceans breed, and when their offspring are tiny, they escape to discover a new Venus flower basket of their very own. The pair contained in the basket clear it and, in return, the basket gives meals for the crustaceans by way of its waste. The animals finally develop too massive to flee the sponge, so they’re pressured to “keep put” for the remainder of their lives.