Why is the sand purple on Plum Island?

Plum Island is a barrier island. This purple sand is high above the high tide high water mark and is a remnant of the initial deposition when the last glacial ice age began to recede and melt and dropped the sediments it had accumulated and pushed forward during its advance.



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A beach with real purple sand you ask? Yes, it is rare and you can find the purple sand beach at Pfeiffer Beach at Big Sur. Not only is the beach sand unique but the just offshore is the unique Keyhole Arch which is one of the photographed shots at Big Sur.

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Olivine Sand Sand of almost exclusively olivine grains is very rare, and Papakolea is one of only four green sand beaches in the world.

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Bioluminescent phyto plankton around the Maldives occasionally washes up onto the shore, making the sand glow in the dark in a dazzling shade of aqua blue.

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Black beaches are so rare because they're only formed under very specific conditions. Essentially, when hot lava is rapidly cooled by the ocean, basalt rock is formed and shattered into tiny pieces and black sand.

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