As is common on some Pacific Northwest shores, instead of fine sand the shores of Titlow Beach are lined by small rocks.
Geographic Overview
Titlow Beach is in an urban area on the eastern shore of the Tacoma Narrows of Puget Sound, Washington. The beach is the typical Pacific Northwest shore with rocks instead of fine sand. The adjacent Titlow Park trail ends at the beach providing an outstanding view of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Titlow Beach is a calm, quiet place with great views of Pudget Sound and is a great place for beach combing and seeing the sea life in tidal pools and under rocks
Sand Location
See where this sand sample was collected on Google Maps.
Virtual Sand Tour
Explore an interactive map of Titlow Beach on Google Earth.
Sand Gallery
(10x) This low magnification of a mixture of moderately smooth sand grains includes clear quartz, opaque light yellow-brown feldspar, greenish and gray-green grains that may be jade, and mottled black and gray grains that represent a geological mix including basalt. Prominent white grains, some with parallel linear striations, are mollusk fragments. A blue chip of mussel shell is at the mid-lower left of this view.
(20x) A large blue mussel fragment with linear brown striping dominates this view while most of the remaining small to mid-size sand grains represent a mixed variety of quartz, feldspar, and black basaltic grains. A relatively large mottled reddish and black metamorphic sand grain is just above a centrally located semitranslucent quartz grain that has a red-brown inclusion.
(25x) A centrally located blue mussel sand grain is surrounded by a mixture of geological sand grains including semi-transparent opaque quartz, feldspar grains with black inclusions, a rose quartz grain at lower right of center and a red-orange grain at the mid-lower left that may be cornelian agate.
(10x) This low magnification view includes a wide spectrum of beach sand including clear and opaque quartz, pale yellow and off-white feldspar, greenish-gray and pale green geological grains that may represent a form of jade, and black basaltic grains. Occasional bright white grains may be chards of mollusk shell. Red-brown grains of agate and blue chips of mussel shell are also represented in this sample.
(25x) This high magnification features centrally located semitransparent quartz, opaque white and yellowing feldspar in the central and far right, and mottled gray and black volcanic grains throughout this view. White angular grain at the lower left and lower right are mollusk shell fragments and the purple-blue shards at the upper and lower areas of this view are fragments of mussel shell.
(10x) Large greenish-gray chips of metamorphic rock lie to the left and lower right of the large white triangular barnacle fragment that dominates this view. Occasional white and blue biotic grains are present in this spectrum of otherwise predominately geological sand grains.
(10x) A triangular white chard of mollusk shell at the upper left of this view stands out against a mixture of small and large predominately geological sand grains. Large and small sand grains have moderately smooth contours due to abrasion from long exposure to wave action.