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Identifying Composition of Sand
Name: Diedre K.
Status: Student
Age: 15
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: August 2, 2004
Question:
Hello, my name is Dierdre K., and I thank you for taking
the time to read my query. I have a question about volcanic sand.
Recently, I went to Hawaii and collected a film canister of each of the
following sands: green (Ka Lae, Hawaii), black (Punalu'u, Hawaii), red
(Hana, Maui), as well as white and grey sand samples from Kauai and Oahu.
It would be easy to go onto the Internet and look up the composition of
each, but I would like to find it myself, as well as the percentage of
the different materials in the sand samples I have. I am only in tenth
grade and do not have many tools readily available for use. Do you have
any suggestions for me? Is this project way over my head?
Replies:
The chemical analysis of minerals (e.g. sand) is not an easy project and
would require more equipment and laboratory know how than you are likely to
have. There is certainly nothing demeaning about using what is already in
the literature (on line or in books). In fact, scientists usually start with
a literature search to find out what is already known about a subject, so
you would only be following good scientific technique. You might be able to
enhance your project if you can obtain use of a low power top-lighted
microscope to enlarge the grain sizes for comparison. You could also use a
"black light" to see if any of the sands fluoresce under ultraviolet
irradiation. There is a lot you can do, but a chemical analysis would be out
of reach of the resources you probably have available.
Vince Calder
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Update: June 2012
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