Colombia

A grain of sand on a beach in Colombia may have started its life high in the Andes.

Rock is slowly broken down by rain, temperature changes and erosion. Smaller and smaller fragments and grains of sand are carried by rivers through valleys, rainforest and lowlands until they finally reach the sea.

On Colombia’s beaches, parts of that journey can still be seen in the grains. Along the Pacific coast, the sand includes fragments of volcanic and metamorphic rock, together with minerals such as magnetite and mica.

In a single grain of sand, you can read traces of the landscape it has travelled through.