Sand has a long history. It started out as bedrock, which was dug up by glaciers of the Great Lakes. When the glaciers moved, it would break apart the bedrock into smaller pieces. They would also pick up other pieces of rock along the way.
Eventually, the glaciers deposited the small pieces of bedrock and other rocks. Then the elements started their process of erosion, breaking up the rocks into what we call sand, the smallest part a rock can be.
Our Michigan sand is mostly composed of quartz.
Beach and dune sand consists largely of quartz (87-94 percent) and to a lesser degree feldspar (10-18 percent).
