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Sand (Comminuted fragments of ig)

comminuted fragments of ig. neous, metamorphic, or volcanic rocks, or of chert, flint, etc. They are detached from the parent rock, and as bowlders SAND and pebbles are ground against each other by water on sea-beaches or in any similar way. The colors of sand correspond to those of the minerals in the rocks from which they were detached. It may be red, white, gray, or black, but when quartzose, as it often is, it is normally reddishyellow, from oxide of iron. Sea-sand often contains Foraminifera, spicules of sponges, minute fragments of shells, por tions of the body of Echinoderms. ( See SANDSTONE.) In the plural, tracts of land consisting of sand, as the deserts of Arabia or Africa; also, tracts of sand left exposed by the ebb of the tide.