Earthblog

Walking along the beach picking up seashells and sea life has been enjoyed by millions of people.  What could be nicer than to watch your children running along the sands picking up shells and exclaiming "look at this one" ...

The Outer Banks has wonderful beaches and lots of treasures may be found to the lucky BeachComber.

Sea Glass

Sea glass (also known as beach glass, mermaid's tears, lucky tears, and many other names) is glass found on beaches along oceans or large lakes that has been tumbled and smoothed by the water and sand, creating small pieces of smooth, frosted glass. 

The color of sea glass is determined by its original source.  Most sea glass comes from bottles, but it can also come from any glass source that has found its way into the ocean.

The most common colors of sea glass are green, brown, and clear. These colors come from bottles used by companies that sell beer, juices, and soft drinks.  Less common colors include jade, amber, golden, lime, forest green and soft blue.

Lightning Glass 

Whilst lightning strikes the earth hundreds of times each day most of the time it is not in a location that we see.  When lightning strikes the beach we get lightning glass.  While uncommon it does occur.  This glass is called Fulgurites.  It is a natural glass sculpture whose shape mimics the path taken underground by a lightning bolt as it dissipates in the Earth. The hollow center is a record of the fact that the sand touched by the very core of the lightning bolt was not just melted, but vaporized. 

As the lightning strikes the Earth and courses downward through the sand, the sand is instantly super heated.  After cooling, glass-like hollow tubes can sometimes be located beneath the surface of the sand, generally decreasing in diameter and sometimes branching as they descend, sometimes extending for several feet. The outer surfaces sand fulgurites are often rough with adhering, infused Quartz sand grains. The inner surfaces and openings of the tubes are usually smooth and glassy, in some specimens resembling an applied glaze, sometimes with blister-like bubbling present. 

Don't go searching for lightning glass during a storm. 

Driftwood

Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea or river by the action of winds, tides, waves or man. It is a form of marine debris. 

Driftwood may provide shelter and food for birds, fish and other aquatic species as it floats in the ocean.  Driftwood is created from:

• trees that have been washed into the ocean
• buildings and their contents
• discarded wooden objects discarded - known as flotsam 
  
• lost cargo - known as jetsam 
  
• parts of a shipwreck

Driftwood can make wonderful table decorations.  Before bringing it in the house make sure that the wood is free of bugs !

Collecting shells

Collecting shells from the beach can be fun.  Virtually every beach can be productive at one time or another, especially after storms.

Atlantic shells tend to include knobby whelks, smooth whelks, moon snails, periwinkles, bay scallops, ocean quahogs, hard clams, jingles, limpets, cockles and others.  In addition to mollusks and shellfish, there are other items such as sand dollars, starfish, ray and shark egg cases, horseshoe crab egg cases, crab shells, sharks teeth and occasionally even gold or silver coins!

The best collecting is actually in the cooler months. One good way to find shells along beaches is to look for low stretches where the water can surge farther up on the sand. In these areas, small patches of beach can be covered with fragments and may also contain whole shells in excellent condition.  New crops of shells often wash ashore following a strong storm from an easterly direction.  Once the storm subsides and the waters recede, sea shell enthusiasts can explore in hopes of having a new crop to choose from.

Location       everywhere on the beach

Cost             no cost