Lithic sand

There are mineral sands and biogenic sands. Mineral sands, as name says, are composed of minerals, but not exclusively. Sometimes they also contain significant amount of mineral aggregates which are called ‘rocks’ or in everyday language also ’stones’. Such sands and sandstones are said to be lithic.

Lithic sands are immature. It means that source rocks must be not very far and weathering agents have not yet had time to break these rocks down to their components. Lithic sands are often interestingly versatile, containing many unusual minerals and rock fragments.

There are very many rock types to be found in the world and consequently almost endless possibilities exist to categorize lithic sands into different types. Rock fragments that often occur in sand are amphibolite, sandstone (especially lithic sandstone), quartzite, chert, limestone, schist, phyllite, granite and basalt. Most lithic sands are dark in color.