RITIDIAN POINT, YIGO, GUAM

RITIDIAN BEACH -U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services

"[Sample #2] is taken from the extreme north of the island at Ritidian Point. The sand has a very rich and varied color witrh constant texture and gradation. I noticed while walking on the beach that my feet sank into the sand very deeply, and walking was difficult. The sand at Ratidian Point is not hard-packed, so there must be a lot of interstitial voids in the sand that make walking somewhat arduous. When I prepared the same . . . I noticed that because all the granules are about the same size and there are no fine [grains] per se, that would be the reason why the sand does not pack tightly like at other beaches. There is no binder. Also, the sand must not reach its liquid limit (becomes saturated) but the water has nowhere to go. Not far from Ritidian Point is a long beach where there are 7-foot high monoliths carved out of stone, sort of like Easter Island, but more primitive. These could probably date back several thousand years, but I am not sure. Still, it's interesting they were found there and not anywhere else on the island that I have seen." Gary Foster

GRAIN DISTRIBUTION CHARACTERISTICS (AGI CHART)

GRAIN SHAPE CHARACTERISTICS

(PREPARED BY GAMMA ZETA CHAPTER , SIGMA GAMMA EPSILON, KENT STATE UNIVERSITY - AGI CHART))

Roundness is the degree of smoothing due to abrasion of sedimentary particles. It is expressed as the ratio of the average radius of curvature of the edges or corners to the radius of curvature of the maximum inscribed sphere.

The sphericity of a particle is: the ratio of the surface area of a sphere (with the same volume as the given particle) to the surface area of the particle.

SAMPLE #1

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SAMPLE #2

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