What is your image of this thing called sand? You probably wonder if sand is always the same everywhere. Look closely, however, and you will see white sand, black sand, all sorts of sand.
Sand from different regions and rivers is always different. None is ever exactly the same.
Each sand is made up with minerals, but how much of each kind of mineral? And what is their chemical composition? By answering these questions, we can learn all sorts of things about the geology of the regions where the sands come from.
Each sand is made up with minerals, but how much of each kind of mineral? And what is their chemical composition? By answering these questions, we can learn all sorts of things about the geology of the regions where the sands come from.
Combining this information in a database will have enormous value. It will be like creating a database by analyzing DNA from different living things, a database filled with information extremely important,
indeed, for the study of biological evolution. In a similar way, creating a sand database with information from all over the world will give us material of huge importance for understanding the origins and the histories of the Earth on which we live.
The data on sand that you collect will also be compared with core samples collected from the depths of the Earth by the ocean drilling program.
