sand - angular basalt sand - set of five tubes of sand weathered from a basalt flow in Hawaii

Sand is derived from whatever material is locally available. Beaches are uncommon on the seacliff-ringed Island of Hawaii. When a lava flow reaches the sea, the hot lava shatters as it enters the sea and if there is a cove nearby, it occasionally accumulates to form a beach. Wave action rounds the sand grains. A 2013 law prohibits collecting sand from a beach in Hawaii.

A locally famous black sand beach occupies a cove southwest of Hilo, where the sand is entirely basalt. Newer black sand beaches formed when the 1990 flows from Kilauea overran Kalapana, flowing into the sea, and when lava from the 2018 Kilauea east rift zone eruption reached the coast.

This sand was collected from the surface of an older flow, between two lobes of the 2018 eruption that cut Highway 137 near the McKenzie Recreation Area southwest of Hilo. The angular nature of the grains shows that this sand has not been transported far from its source and that it has not been rounded by wave action. We often have a younger black sand, iridescent and also angular, from a 1990 lava flow near Kalapana, which has a glassy surface that is disintegrating. It will eventually lose its iridescence and look like this sand. 

Set of five tubes, 16 ml each, optically clear polystyrene with screw caps. The plastic tubes are practical in a classroom and are somewhat student resistant, though a cap can be unscrewed. Good for student examination.  

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