Oman

Can you find out where a single grain of sand come from?

In Oman’s Wahiba Sands, researchers have analysed sand grain by grain with a laser to trace its origin.

When the laser hits a grain, it creates a tiny cloud of plasma. The light reveals the grain’s chemical composition and works like a fingerprint. Researchers can use it to distinguish sand originating in mountains and riverbeds from sand with other origins.

The results showed that a single vast dune field can consist of sand that has travelled from different sources along different routes. In northern Wahiba, much of the sand comes from valleys and riverbeds carrying material from the Hajar Mountains. Further south, the origins are more mixed, including sand from coastal sources.