Sand Pirates


	*Project GEO* *Geotechnical Engineering* *Earth Science Outreach*
Dr. Nick Hudyma The University of North Florida		Bo Smith Terry Parker High School

Fall 2004 Term Projects

Study of the Mineral Characteristics of Northeast Florida Beach Sand
Last Updated: December 19th, 2004

Hello there, we are Mehgan McCann and Teresa Owens, better known as 'The Sand Pirates'. Our project was the 'Study of the Mineral Characteristics of Northeast Florida Beach Sand'. We conducted our project during two Saturday mornings and one Wednesday afternoon in the Geotechnical Lab at the University of North Florida. We started by discussing where the beach sand came from. It came from Mickler's Landing in South Ponte Vedra Beach. We then examined the sand with a stereo microscope and with the 'Digital Blue' computer microscope. Next, we sorted the sand using a 'seive shaker' which separated the sand into six categories according to the size of the sand particles and examined each category for the types of materials present. The are some 'Digital Blue'images in our 'Photo Gallery' of some of these samples. Aftyer studying the samples, we conducted an experiment to compare the setttling rates of the light colored (low specific gravity) minerals to the heavier dark colored minerals. We also used magnets to observe which of the minerals were magnetic.

After finishing our project we have come to the following conclusions: The sand is composed primarily light colored mineral grains (mostly quartz) which setlled relatively slowly and were not magnetic. Some of the sand contained dark colored minerals which were mostly smaller in size and settled faster than the light colored minerals. Some of the dark minerals were magnetic. We believe that the magnetic dark minerals were ilmentite (lucoxcene) and the non-magnetic dark minerals were rutile. These were two of the minerals we had hoped to identify in the sand as they are ore minerals of Titanium Oxide.
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Any questions? Please email Mr. Smith

These are "The Sand Pirates"
Teresa Owens on the left & Mehgan McCann on the right

Image Gallery of Our Project

First Lab; Saturday, September 18th


Observing the sand before sorting under the microscope	Using the 'sieve shacker' to sort by grain size
Mehgan pouing some sand into a bowl	Sand samples sorted by grain size
Taking a picture of a sand sample using the 'Digital Blue' microscope

Second Lab, Wednesday, September 29th


Teresa observing sand characteristics of one of the sorted samples	Mehgan observing sand characteristics of one of the samples
Each sorted sample was imaged with the 'Digital Blue' microscope	Mehgan recording data in the experiment notebook

'Digital Blue' Computer Microscope Images

Reference Samples

Quartz (top lighted)- 60X	Staurolite (top lighted)- 60X
Illmenite (top lighted)- 60X	Rutile (top lighted)- 60X

These were the samples we examined to make our conclusion


Large particles (Sample A)- mostly shells (top lighted)- 60X	Large particle (Sample A)- shells and quartz (top lightted)- 60X	Sample B (top lighted)- 60X
Sample C (top lighted)- 60X	Sample D (bottom lighted)- 60X	Sample D (top lighted)- 60X
Sample E (top lighted)- 10X	Sample F (top lighted)- 60X	Sample F (bottom lighted)- 60X

Third Lab
Observing the different rates of sink of the felsic (light colored) sand and the mafic (dark colored) sands


These are the felsic and mafic sands we used in our experiment	We wieghed the graduated cylinder before starting our experiment
We timed the sand particles as they fell through the liquid in the graduated cylinder	This is the sand particles as they fell through the saltwater
We were pouring karo syrup into the graduated cylinder	We had to try many different ways of pouring the sand into the Karo syrup so that it wouldn't stick together
This is the sand in the Karo syrup as it stuck together and wouldn't separate	Another picture of our Karo syrup experiment

Obsrving the differing degrees of magnetic attraction of the different heavy minerals


Abstracting the heavy minerals using a small magnet	This is another pictureof us abstracting the heavy minerals using the small magnets
We recorded the weight of the minerals we extracted using the small magnet.	We then used a much larger and more powerful magnet to extract the heavy minerals from the sand