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The Color of Sand

I’ve seen white-sand beaches and black-sand beaches, but on the small unpopulated island of Rábida I saw my first red-sand beach. The red color is the result of high levels of iron in the volcanic material that formed the island.

Red-sand beach, Rábida Island, Galapagos

From my previous travels, a trip down memory lane of the spectrum of sand colors:

Black-sand beach, Hana Beach, Maui, Hawaii
White-sand beach, Kuramathi Island, Maldives (2005)
White-ish-sand beach
Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India (2008)
White-sand beach, Gulf Shore, Alabama (2021)
Brown-sand beach, Meyers Beach, Oregon (2017)
The sand color spectrum.
Golden-sand beach
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan (2021)
Yellow-sand beach, Venice, California (2017)

I heard that somewhere in Galapagos, there is a green-sand beach. Adding it to my bucket list!

9 responses to “The Color of Sand”
  1. Sharon Breitenfeld Avatar
    Sharon Breitenfeld

    Cool!

  2. Chris Barry Avatar
    Chris Barry

    Wonderful to gaze upon those lovely beaches when it’s still freezing here!

    1. Ha! I’ve almost forgotten what freezing feels like!

  3. Spectacular photos! You have enriched my knowledge base, I had no idea there are red and green beaches….

    1. Happy to be enriching your knowledge base, Margret! 🙂

  4. Elaine Smith Avatar
    Elaine Smith

    Researched it for you. The green sand beach is at Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island. Hope you can swing it, one of only 4 green sand beaches in the world!

    1. Thanks for the detective work, Elaine!

  5. shannon clubb Avatar
    shannon clubb

    the rainbow lifeguard stand is still one of my favorite pictures in your library.

    1. It has always been one of my favorites too. And from our old stompin’ ground state, no less!