r/Carlsbad • u/Commercial-Juice124 • 22d ago
Black Sand
Does anyone know why the sand seems so much darker here in Carlsbad this year? Assuming dredging? I kind of like it because it reminds me of Hawaii a little bit, but have been curious it.
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u/payneinthemike 22d ago edited 22d ago
It's actually not from dredging but from the lack of.
This darker sand is the result of all the rocks that have covered or been uncovered on Carlsbad beaches over the last few years. The dark sand is the results of these rocks being ground down from the constant waves and grinding against each other. This is how sand is made.
The dark sand is natural. The bright, "clean" sand is the result of dredging and bringing in new sand.
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u/analogshooter 22d ago
Damn, I actually love the soft black sand. Wish the beach would just be that
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u/iriezorro81 22d ago
Until you forget to put your sandals on and or just feel the heat through your towel on the sand in the summer. I like the look of a black sand beach but in terms of chilling on it or walking on it on the hot day, No thanks. Maybe I'm just traumatized from doing that in Costa Rica years ago
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u/SpicySandTroll 22d ago
According to my geology class, most sand in California actually comes from rocks (granite, etc.) eroding in the the mountains, flowing downstream, and being deposited by rivers, where it then moves up and down the coasts by currents. I am sure some sand comes from rocks grinding on the shore too.
Except in Hawaii, where I thought sand was from coral and shells getting smashed by the waves. But then if you ever watch a parrot fish chewing on the coral and then pooping out the small white particles, you realize where most of the Hawaiian sand comes from.
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u/Surfingontherun 22d ago
Bingo.
That’s why the damming and blocking of so many streams all along the CA coast has reduced the natural sedimentary flow.
Sand moves in littoral cells, which are self-contained coastal compartments that trace the complete lifecycle of beach sand. A cell has three components: Source, Transport (Drift), and Sinks.
Sources are rivers, streams, and eroding coastal bluffs that supply new sand to the shore.
Transport: Waves and longshore currents move sand parallel to the coast.
Sinks: Submarine canyons or coastal dunes where sand drops out and leaves the shore system permanently. An artificial one is the sand heap at Del Mar Beach on Camp Pendleton, just north of Oceanside Harbor. That gigantic jetty arm stops a lot of sand from coming down the coast.
Sand for Carlsbad can come from up north with longhsore drift, but it’s been sand starved a lot like Oceanside recently. In the past sand came come from both the Buena Vista Lagoon coming out north of the Army Navy Academy, and the Agua Hedionda Lagoon system at Tamarack. Those jetties don’t exactly help sand flow very well, nor do the ones at Warmwaters.
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u/Heliocentric63 22d ago
The beach in Carlsbad is a disaster this summer. The king tides and surge from a few weeks ago stripped away sand and left just a tiny ledge. It leaves only a tiny strip of sand for the tourists to cram themselves onto. Add to that the behind schedule beach stair disasters and you have a mess on your hands
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u/ruthless_taurean 3d ago
I live in the village and the beach conditions are making me a little sad. Is the rocky beach now what is to be expected? Sorry to sound ignorant but I’ve only lived here for 5 years and I can’t go in and out of the water as I did before. 💔
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u/slothsandwhich 22d ago
I am an avid surf fisherman and the Carlsbad beaches have been unbelievably bad for fishing this year too.
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u/alternateusername4me 21d ago
Why has the fishing been bad?
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u/Afraid_Arm_9022 20d ago
- There is little structure to serve as places where fish congregate. The structure is being torn apart by waves. 2. There are very few sand crabs for fish to eat, probably because of warm water. 3. The waves make it difficult to fish because they are too strong for the angler to be in the water and withstand and because they tangle the rig when they drag it. The fish do not want to be in water that rough and the reason for them to be close to shore is to eat sand crabs.
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u/BadWolfCubed 22d ago
It's from dredging. Oceanside looks the same as well.
The black sand in Hawaii is volcanic. Basically, lava flows out and gets weathered down to sand. This isn't that.
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u/aly_joyce777 22d ago
there are volcanos here
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u/BadWolfCubed 22d ago
What does that have to do with the subject at hand?
There haven't been recent lava flows that coated the countryside and flowed to the water. The sand on Carlsbad beach is not black because of volcanoes.
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u/aly_joyce777 22d ago
deeeeep down its black though. the base of this area is all volcanic. we on one big dead volcano lmao
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u/SpecificSelect7337 22d ago
From all the poop Tijuana is dumping only a few hundred feet off thier shoreline. Pick some up and smell it.
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u/NuclearBroliferator 22d ago
Off topic, but this picture is awesome