The Matt writes:
Just to be pedantic, this isn't the only means to make sand.
This is more interesting question than I previously thought.
Here is a really nice article on sand that was originally published in Scientific American by Walter Mack and Elizabeth Leistikow
http://www.aplmicro.com/sands.pdf
Reference Article writes:
When we pick up a handful of sand from the beach and watch it sift through our fingers, we are seeing the product of millions of years of geologic history
YECers never mention what wonderful aspect of the world wide flood was suppose to create huge (really huge) deposits of sand. Of all the mechanisms involved in the generation of sand a flood would only supply mechanical action as in high velocity stream flows - there were no freeze/thaw cycles.
However the flood is a 40 day event (or a year if you like). The events from such a flood would be sporadic and not sustained and could not therefore be capable of generated huge deposits of uniform sand.
For some empirical evidence, I live on the great Missoula flood plain. This was a cataclysmic event that that sent a wall of water initially 2000 ft high at speeds approaching 100 mph across Idaho Washington and Oregon. The city of Portland was once under 250 ft of water from this flood. Incredibly there is evidence that this Ice Age flood event occurred approximately 40 separate times on a cycle of roughly 50 years.
And guess what? There is very little sand to be found, our beaches are typically of course gravels and large boulders.
But it gets more impossible for the "young earth model" . . .
In reading the above reference article i learned (yeah I don't travel much) that many tropical beaches are almost 100% of biological origin - consisting of fragments of marine invertebrates and even plants products.
Now consider the number of generations of animals that would be required to create such immense deposits. Also many of these deposits are in the process of being recycled as these shells erode and dissolve back to the sea.
Any YECers want to put pen to paper and venture a calculation?
Edited by iceage, : No reason given.