Three quarters of the planet is covered by water and only a quarter is land. It is impossible to believe that all the edges where the salt waters of the sea meet the firmness of the earth are completely equal. Each of these beaches are unique in their kind, the sea is different in all of them because the light is reflected in different ways, but there are also sands of different shades. Black, pink, white and many more different colors cover the meeting between and earth. There are even some with glowing bioluminescence that lights up at dusk thanks to the plankton that lives in them. But definitely if you are a lover and a tireless seeker of beaches with this peculiar beauty, perhaps you should add the beach with popcorn-shaped sand to your list.
A popcorn covered paradise
Called Popcorn Bay, Popcorn Beach or simply the popcorn beach, it bears this name not because of simple human whim but because its sand seems to be covered with popcorn that has just come out of the oven. Whitish with peculiar shapes, each grain of its sand enchants anyone who visits it due to its great resemblance to a field covered with millions of popcorn. And although it is very tempting to take a bite, do not be seduced by their appearance, as they are actually a mixture of seaweed and beach sand.
Las Palomitas Beach is located in a Caribbean paradise unique in its kind due to its geological characteristics, the Canary Islands. The archipelago itself is already an oasis in the desert because in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, its islands are full of natural wealth. But among its islands is Fuerteventura, which perhaps has the most paradisiacal coast in the entire Canary Islands.
In Fuerteventura, beaches abound, their golden sand reflects the sun’s rays and they are the most sought after destinations for tourists. But the island is a treasure full of natural wealth and has much more to offer. Precisely on the strip of coastline that extends between El Cotillo and Corralejo is the Palomitas Beach whose official name is El Hierro.
Why is sand shaped like popcorn?
Behind its popcorn sands are rhodoliths, which are red algae that are not subject to the sea and are capable of synthesizing carbonate to form their skeleton. While alive, algae have a pink or violet color, but once their life cycle ends, they lose their color, turning whitish. The sway of the sea then does its thing and shapes the rest of the rhodoliths’ bodies and then throws them out of the water.
This is how the peculiar sands of the beach in Fuerteventura are formed, a paradise that tells us about the history of the sea and its inhabitants. Rhodoliths are beings that grow very slowly, only 1 millimeter per year, therefore, they are like small memories of the climate for Earth students. This is because they develop growth bands on their skeleton that are related to periods of warming or even cloudiness. Not to mention that they function as a living ecosystem, since their bottoms constitute refuges for other marine species.
Without a doubt, Mother Earth surprises us in a thousand ways and in the process teaches us the great wealth and value of her living beings, which we must respect and safeguard.