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Sand Beach

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This is the only sand beach on the island, and sand beaches are pretty rare along the Downeast coast of Maine. The unique feature about this beach is that 70% of the sand grains are CaCO3 (the remains of the shells of marine organisms). This is unusual in that most temperate or cold water beaches are made of quartz because CaCO3 goes into solution easily at low temperatures. As a case in point, the state of Georgia contains the next beaches with as much CaCO3 as this one. The unusual consistency of this beach is the result of the extreme productivity of the coastal waters in this region. Though CaCO3 goes into solution readily at these temperatures, enough new shell material is being added to maintain the beach.

In part because this beach is so small and so isolated from other sand beaches, and in part because of the cold water temperature, we found virtually no typical beach fauna. Most of the species we identified here were those we found in association with the rocks along the base of the cliff.

Another great reason to visit is to see the geological formation known as a shatter zone in the cliffs along the left side of the beach. This shatter zone consists of a type of rock called breccia, which is actually a mixture of rock types. The breccia formed when hot granite magma rapidly intruded existing sandstone rocks and shattered them, then cooled around the pieces rapidly (preventing metamorphosis) and resulting in igneous rock packed with pieces of sandstone.

Click on a photo below to enlarge.

Sand Beach 2000

Sand Beach 2002

The shatter zone 2002

Sand Beach 2004

Student Reports

Lab Report by Robin Batcheller

Sandy Beach Species List