Did you know that each of the 7 emirates of the UAE has a different color of sand?
According to specialists, the colour that sand acquires depends largely on what it is formed from. Most sands are derived from rock with a high proportion of silica. Sand can also be made from the erosion of coral or limestone. As a product of erosion of something else, it takes on the chemical properties of the original thing. For instance, if the base rock is originally rich in black mica, the sand we get from it will take on a dark colour. If the base rock has iron oxide, the sand will be reddish.
"In Abu Dhabi, we find sand derived from limestone, which is rich in carbonates; the darker sands may be derived from bedrock composed of granite, which in turn is constituted from a mixture of feldspar, quartz and mica. Some sands that are clear and transparent are made of quartz, gypsum or anhydrite.
"Transparent sand grains often get braided or coated with other deposits and turn cloudy in appearance. However, if you were to polish that grain, it would turn transparent again and so on and so forth." So basically sands have different colors, depending on their composition.
Abu Dhabi: Light Red - A lighter concentration of iron oxide.
Dubai: Red - A stronger concentration of iron oxide.
Sharjah: Brown - Contains some organic material, iron and lead sulphide sediments in the limestone.
Ras Al Khaimah: White - Made from sandstone, which has plenty of quartz.
Umm al-Qiwan: Blue - The grayish-blue colour comes from iron in its reduced condition. When iron stands in water it does not get oxidized and lends a grayish-blue hue.
Ajman: Cream - This colour could possibly come from a lesser quantity of quartz present in silica, or it is possible that the sands have greater sediment of white coral deposits.
Fujairah: Black - The colour black possibly stands for the sand that is obtained from corrosion of gabro rock found in the mountain range in the emirate.
And of course just like any theory, there are some other specialists that believe and claim that no particular colour is unique to one emirate and there may be pockets in the region where the specific colour may be found.
And of course just like any theory, there are some other specialists that believe and claim that no particular colour is unique to one emirate and there may be pockets in the region where the specific colour may be found.
The fact remains that each sand colour is simply beautiful!
