Why some places have sea glass and others don't?


Tweet

Why some places have sea glass and others don't?

I have been looking for sea glass for about a year now,and the thing that puzzles me is how is it that one beach will produce some nice pieces,but the next beach over ,maybe just a few 100 metres away is sterile,as an eg. a small cove I search is great, but a mere 50 metres away another one is totally devoid of any glass.

--------------

Here are the likely reasons:

At one time, the cove with beach glass was a home site, a small dump, a favorite party beach, or got more that its share of trash some other way.

The no-glass cove did not have the same trash supply.

Sea glass is heavier than water and sinks to the bottom. Below the sand and out from the low tide line (sometimes only a few yards), the sand ends and the sea glass sinks to the rock bottom and lays there. It takes fierce waves and currents to move it more than a few feet under most conditions.

Sea glass will not usually move around even a small point to another cove for the above reasons.

The idea that sea glass "washes up" onto the shore is almost never true. Although it will move some, it usually moves downward (outward) until it is wedged or buried on the bottom.

In very sandy areas, buried sea glass is frequently uncovered and that is why it is constantly replenished. It may lie beneath tons of sand on the beach that is many feet deep. When the sand is tumbled by the waves, pieces of glass will come to the surface.

However, on a beach that has not had trash thrown on it, there is usually not going to be much beach glass.

See a detailed description of what types of beaches are most likely to contain sea glass at

Finding a Sea Glass Beach.

David Schneider (Editor)

-----------------------------