Atlantic Coast Beaches by William J. Neal

Cooper The World’s Beaches : A Global Guide to the Science of the Shoreline University of California Press, Berkeley, 2011.Common information about name William Neal Full Name Pilkey, Orrin H., William J Neal, Joseph T. Post and sand photos by Susan Carver, OPRHP. Thanks for Anne McIntyre, Dave McQuay, and Megan Philips for their help with collecting sand samples for this article. You might be surprised at what you see when you take an up-close look at the sand. Here the sands contain magnetite and garnet which give the sand a purplish hue.īring your magnifying glass the next time you head to a NYS Parks beach. The beaches on the north side of Napeague State Park and Hither Hills State Park are along Napeague Bay. The shell in the photo is about 1/3” long larger glass piece is about 1/6” long. The beach at Robert Moses State Park, also on the Atlantic Ocean side, is mixture of quartz, garnet, magnetite, and shells. All of the particles are about the same size. Other sections of beach at Jones Beach State Park have quartz, garnet, and magnetite sand with a few tiny shell fragments. Note that the clear quartz particles have different sizes. Some parts of the beach have sand that is mostly comprised of quartz with a little feldspar and tiny shell fragments.

Jones Beach State Park has 6-1/2 miles of Atlantic Ocean shoreline different sections of beach have slightly different sands. Located northwest of Rochester, Hamlin Beach State Park beach sands are mostly quartz, hypersthene (brown and gray), and augite (greenish). All of the particles are approximately the same size. The sand on the beach at Evangola State Park in southern Erie County is principally quartz, feldspar, magnetite, with smaller amounts of garnet, calcite, ilmenite, and hornblende. Let’s take a closer look at the sands on a few of those beaches … New York State Parks have over 65 beaches on lakes, ponds, rivers, bays, and the Atlantic Ocean. Some beaches have unique sand such as the orange Kerala coast beach sand in India. On beaches around the world you will find lava (black beaches), coral (pink beaches), garnet (purple beaches), olivine crystals (green beaches) and more. In New York, many beaches have a variety of minerals including quartz, white or clear particles feldspar, buff-colored particles and magnetite, black particles.

Atlantic Coast Beaches by William J. Neal