Most of us like to go to the beach, if it's summer to bathe and enjoy sunbathing and, if it's cold, to walk along the seashore.Most of our beaches are sandy golden with more or less coarse grain, even in some volcanic places black sand beaches abound, but did you know that there are many more colors? Perhaps the most surprising of all are the natural green sand beaches, do you know where they are? Join us to discover it.
Natural green sand beaches
The southernmost point of the US is in Hawaii and is known as "South Point." In that place we can find one of nature's most amazing phenomena, one of the few green sand beaches that exist in the world.It is the beach of «Papakolea» in the bay of Mahana.The name of the beach has nothing to do with color of its sand, but it means «plover», which is the name of the most frequent bird in that area.

The natural green color comes from the olivine crystals that have gone detaching from the magma of the volcano cone Puu Mahana.Erosion deposits Magmas ulas on the beach and the action of the waves that sweep the beach takes the ones that are lighter, leaving the olivine that is heavier since it is composed among other elements by iron and magnesium.This type of beach can only exist when the final areas of a volcano are combined with the eroding action of waves of great height and force.

In addition to Papakolea, another famous green sand beach is located on the Guam Island, in the Pacific.It is the Talofofo beach , one of the best for surfing.In this case, the green color of the sand is only noticeable when there is so ly there are certain climatic conditions that make the rays hit the olive tree making it stand out over the muddy color of the rest of the sand.
In Ecuador, in the Galapagos Islands , there is another one of these natural green sand beaches.It is on the island of Floreana in Punta Cormoran.

The last of these beaches is in Norway , is the beach with the greenest sand in Europe.This on the shores of Lake Hornindalsvatnet .It was formed by the movement of the glaciers thousands of years ago and the lake/fjord was filled with green mineral deposits .
As a curiosity we will add that in 2005, NASA scientists detected in Temple 1 comet, olivine crystals of smaller size than those of the Hawaiian beach.
Did you know that there were natural green sand beaches? Do you know any more? If so, share it with us! If you were interested in this article, you may want to read the post:
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Images: Eli Duke, Sparkle Motion, Natarajanganesan
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