Photo Essay: 7 Beautifully Bizarre Beaches
Ever played Falling Sand? There’s nothing so satisfying as creating a technicolor sand-sculpture masterpiece and blowing it to smithereens with some explosive mouse-clicking. But where does all that sweet, colored sand come from? Not food coloring, but from the world’s intersections of earth and ocean where crashing waves turn dense minerals and matter into tiny grains. And despite what your color-by-number book tells you, it’s not all yellow.
1. Red sand, Kaihalulu, Maui, Hawaii
When a a breach in the Earth’s crust lets loose a geyser of magma, the volcanic ash and material has to go somewhere, and, quite often, forms a massive conical structure called a cinder cone. At Kaihalulu Beach, an ancient cinder cone crumbles into a bay as the tide erodes it further, ensuring its inevitable total destruction. In the meantime, the sediment from the cinder cone forms this beach of red sand.
Photo: xoque
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74 Comments... join the discussion!
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Nice article!
Amazing the black sand beach in Santorini.Also it’s amazing the volcano there!↵ -
spectacular photography.Odd, but good colours on the beaches…sure is a treat for the eyes.
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Amazing. #3 is my personal favourite.
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I am amaze by the glass sand……….its beautiful!!!
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Next summer I am planning to go traveling the coast of CA. I live in San Diego. So It am heading all the way to the border of Oregon.
With out this photo essay I would have never known that in California existed those beaches.
Thanks again. It has only gotten me more excited to go on this journey. As its my first travel and many more to come.Che
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On the northern coast of France is a small town called Etratet. The sand is the all made of rocks the size of an adult fist and multiple colors. It is also an amazing beach because it is surrounded by very tall cliffs (with a golf course on top of one of them).
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Cool list! I never knew there was pink and green sand. I want to see it! stumbled & tweeted this cool post!
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wow ! beautiful places…
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Wow!! awesome pics… I sure would like to see a few of these beaches one day :0)
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The pink beach is stunning.
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check out mumbai nariman point… http://www.evirtualpie.com/myimage/albums/userpics/nariman-point-mono.jpg the stones are all equal sized
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nice post, giants causeway in ireland should be there! have a look here http://cannedcumulus.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/giants_causeway1.jpg
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Sounds like a plan! Who is paying for me?
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Really nice.. especially Santorini.
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Bermuda has gorgeous pink sand as well.
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California represent!
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Yes, it’s stunning…because the color has been enhanced in Photoshopped so much to make the sand pink, the clouds are now pink.
I’ve seen this beach. It’s pink sand, but this is ridiculous.
LJ
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there’s a beach in Costa Rica made entirely of shells. Playa Conchal.
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Idiot.. nariman point mumbai has cement blocks of similar size and shape to prevent sea erosion…
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wow, this is just too incredible
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