Imagine painting the scenery of ‘a weekend at the beach’. You would create an image of people enjoying the coldwater caressing them, relaxing on beach chairs with a refreshing tender coconut in one hand, or making sandcastles with their loved ones. Blue coloured water, a golden sun, white sand and green trees would span your canvas. Now imagine painting your sand PINK. Yes, you read it right! You might wonder why someone would do such a horrendous thing. Well, to Dolores Jane Umbridge’s delight, pink sand does exist, and so do the beaches with such pink sands.
There are many dazzling pink beaches across the world - the Harbour Island, Bahamas; the Crane Beach, Barbados; the Horseshoe Bay, Bermuda; the Balos Bay in Crete, Greece; the Komodo Islands, Indonesia; Spiaggia Rosa, Sardinia, Italy, and the Great Santa Cruz Island of Philippines.
The most obvious doubt that comes to our mind is whether this is a mere optical illusion, with our eyes tricking us. Well, it is not. One might also wonder if coloured corals have been finely powdered to mimic pink sand. Now, we are closer to the answer but haven’t still got it right. The pink hue of the sand is derived from the reddish-pink shells of microscopic unicellular organisms called Foraminifera. These organisms are among the most abundant single-celled organisms in the ocean and live on the underside of the coral reefs that lie not so far from the beaches. When these organisms die, they settle at the bottom of the ocean where the mix with shells of calcium carbonate. The pounding of the larger waves is then responsible for the pink mixture to reach the shores. With the sun bleaching the pink sand, we can see multiple shades of pink, with the most vivid shades of pink near the water’s edge.
Are you still having trouble believing me? You really don’t have to. Once the pandemic is over, just pack your bags and head to the nearest beach and witness this with your own eyes. Then you can decide if it was all just an illusion or reality.
Reposted from "The Monthly Nature Review" (Nature Club) - Abhivahya Monthly Edition, October 2020, IISER Kolkata Campus Radio