Akaishi Beach sand primarily consists of marine sand grains representing broken fragments of coral and forams worn smooth by wave action and occasional dark sand grains of geological origin.
White and tan smoothly worn fragments of marine organisms and pieces of shell characterize sand near the water’s edge. Star and disc-shaped forams are abundant in this sample along with smoothed coral fragments. A light tan fragment of sea urchin spine with linear grooves is present near the lower left of the image. The higher magnification shows details of the forams. A smoothly worn conical snail shell with tan linear markings is present in the upper center of the higher magnification view.
Geographic Overview
Akaishi Beach is in the western Pacific on the northern extension of Ishigaki Island. It is far south of the main islands of Japan and only a little over 300 km from Taiwan. The beach is covered by fine sand comprised of fragments of marine organisms along with larger pieces of broken coral and gray and black volcanic rock worn smooth by wave action.
Sand Location
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Virtual Sand Tour
Explore an interactive map of Akaishi Beach on Google Earth.
Sand Gallery
This view of biogenic fragments consists of a spectrum of light tan forams including worn down star-shaped forams (remnant with four points present just above center) and pieces of disk-shaped forams with parallel rows of holes (at center bottom).
This spectrum of biogenic sand grains consists of a variety of tan smoothy worn forams, two conical snail shells (one with holes) near the center of the image and a red piece of benthic foram, probably Homotrema rubra.
This mixture of biogenic sand grains includes a grain with red coloration, possibly Homotrema rubra, some smooth surface tan forams, multiple tan foams with punctate spot textures, and a round greenish-tan cross section of a sea urchin spine with radial striations just to the right of center. A translucent white conical snail shell is at the center lower edge.