Types of sand in Martinique 

There are several types of sand in Martinique, including black, white and gray.

The black sand is produced by the erosion of an old lava flow or by deposits following burning clouds, commonly called pyroclastic sand.

White or lagoon sand is produced by the wear of rocks and shells, echinoderm skeletons, coral and parrot fish fecal matter.

Grey sand is produced by the wear of cliffs and reefs bordering the coasts or by alluvial products from rivers. It then takes the color of the main rock, white if it is limestone, from grey to red if it is quartz.

There are also other types of sand such as river sand, with more or less coarse grains, and eolian sand, produced by the wear of rocks by the action of the wind, which is very fine and regular. The diversity of sands comes from the 180 different minerals that have been discovered in sands out of the 4,900 mineral species known and described by mineralogists. It is important to note that the sand is also a place of life in its own right, like the mangrove which can only be established on soft and sandy soil.