Chile
Sand Origin
La garbata garganta del Diablo, San Pedro de Atacama
Random Sand Fact
In Chile, researchers found green sand inside one of the world’s oldest deliberately mummified bodies.
On the coast of the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth, a fishing people began mummifying their dead more than 7,000 years ago. The dryness could do it on its own, but they went further. They emptied the bodies and filled them again.
When researchers examined one of the mummies, the filling was green sand, including quartz and the green copper mineral atacamite. Where the sand came from, and why this particular sand was chosen, is still unknown.
