Sint Maarten is a sothern part of Saint Martin Island in the Caribbean. It belongs to the Netherlands. Needless to say, weather is generally very nice there and beach sand light-colored.
What is the composition of this sand? It is a carbonate sand. It contains fragments of corals, forams, gastropods, sea urchins, clams, etc.
Carbonate biogenic beach sand from Sint Maarten. The width of the view is 10 mm.
Selected biogenic sand grains picked from the sand. The width of the view is 6 mm.
1. Foram. Homotrema?
2. Coral or calcareous algae?
3. Bivalvia
4. Crustacean shell (crab)?
5. Tube worm or scaphopod?
6. Octocoral spicule
7. Octocoral spicule
8. ?
9. Sea urchin spine
10. Gastropod?
11. Sea urchin spine
12. Sponge spicule
13. Foram
These identifications are by no means certain. I encourage you to let me know if you think you can identify some of the grains shown on the photo.
