August 2012

Heralded as one of the finest beaches in the world, Unawatuna lies close to
the southern tip of Sri Lanka. The sand contributes to the heralding – on every
scale – but this sand must have tales to tell. The resort was devastated by the
2004 tsunami, and a quick search of the internet reveals harrowing stories
typical of those from around the Indian Ocean that appalling day. The before and
after images below do not begin to evoke the full extent of the catastrophe that
hit the residents that day, but the Google Earth image (from before the
tsunami) shows the complex way in which the shape of the coast refracts and
focuses even normal ocean waves – the chaos of what this natural lens created
when successive tsunami surges hit can only be imagined.

Many stretches of Sri Lanka’s beaches lost huge amounts of sand, but nature
seems to have achieved effective beach nourishment and restoration. I can find
no evidence of a human contribution to the re-supply of sand, only the
opposite – extensive sand mining that reduced the coastal supply and inhibited
the natural processes. So who knows exactly what stories these sand grains
tell? In all likelihood some were sucked from the beach, only to be thrown back
as the tsunami surged, joined probably by others that had been residing
peacefully offshore, among the coral reefs whose fragments we see in the sand.
But this is a spectacular and diverse sand: the ubiquitous quartz grains there,
but overwhelmed by biogenic detritus. Sponge spicules, coral fragments, sea
urchin spines, the inevitable forams,
bits and pieces of shells as well as tiny complete ones, all testimony to the great organic engine of the
tropical ocean. And what exactly that little beautiful blue and grey “cogwheel”
is, I really don’t know.

All in all, a sand and a beach whose character belies their witness to chaos
and tragedy.

[Thanks – once again – to Connie for collecting the sand. The immediate
post-tsunami image is from Muddled Clarity, the tranquil beach scene from HolidayCheck.com] SIGNATURE

Originally published at: https://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2012/08/index.html