sand

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Maine Teen Dies While Digging Hole at NJ Beach

Levy Caverley, 18, died after hole he and sister were digging in Toms River collapsed

(Newser) - A Maine teen died this week along the Jersey Shore after the hole he was digging with his sister collapsed. Police say 18-year-old Levy Caverley was at a beach in Toms River, NJ, on Tuesday afternoon, reportedly enjoying a day in the sun by carving out a 10-foot-deep hole in...

Bottle of Sand Just Cost This Guy $1.2K

French tourist wasn't successful in bid to take home 4.4 pounds of the stuff from Sardinia

(Newser) - Since 2017, taking sand home as a souvenir from the beaches of Sardinia has been illegal —but yet another visitor to the Italian island apparently didn't get that memo. Local authorities say a French tourist was busted at Cagliari Elmas Airport on Sept. 1, trying to leave with...

N. Korea Has a Creative New Cottage Industry

It's selling sand. That's right

(Newser) - Experts say North Korea earned at least $22 million last year in illegally selling, uh, sand. "This is one of the most unique cases of North Korean sanctions evasion behavior that we've seen," Lucas Kuo, an analyst with the nonprofit Center for Advanced Defense Studies, tells CNN...

Tourists Face Jail Over Odd Crime: Sand Theft

French couple caught taking white sand from beach in Sardinia

(Newser) - A French couple who visited the Italian island of Sardinia swear they just wanted to bring home a reminder of their visit. Now they're facing possible jail time as a result, reports the Local . Their offense? Alleged sand theft. And not just a thimbleful: Authorities confiscated 90 pounds of...

Greenland: Melting Glaciers Open Up Vast Sand Deposits
Greenland: Melting Glaciers
Open Up Vast Sand Deposits
in case you missed it
Feb 16, 2019 7:30 AM CST

Greenland: Melting Glaciers Open Up Vast Sand Deposits

Mining sand could deliver huge economic boost

(Newser) - In a strangely positive twist to climate change, a new study finds that Greenland could become a major exporter of sand as its glaciers disappear into the sea. As global temperatures rise, the island's vast ice sheet is rapidly melting away, and large amounts of sediments are being washed...

Island Fights Tourists Trying to Steal Tons of Sand

Sardinia will fine you up to $3.4K if you take sand, rocks, or shells from its beaches

(Newser) - Do the crime, pay the fine—and on the island of Sardinia, the fine for collecting sand as a souvenir can be quite steep. The Telegraph reports a 40-year-old British tourist now has to fork over nearly $1,200 after local police say he was found with a plastic bottle...

Answers Died With Woman Buried Alive at Beach: Cops

Police end investigation into death of Ashley O'Connor

(Newser) - Without discovering a satisfactory explanation for her death, police have closed the investigation into a woman who suffocated beneath the sand of a Maryland beach, WTOP reports. "How the hole collapsed, she unfortunately is the only person that will know," Ocean City Police Chief Ross Buzzuro says. Ashley...

The World Is Built on Sand, and We're Running Out
The World Is Built on Sand,
and We're Running Out
Longform
May 25, 2017 5:26 PM CDT

The World Is Built on Sand, and We're Running Out

Use of sand 'greatly exceeds natural renewal rates'

(Newser) - Like sand through an hourglass, time is running out for the world's, uh, sand. The New Yorker takes a nitty-gritty look at sand—a topic that is both less simple and more bleak than one would think. In industrial circles, sand is known as aggregate, a category that also...

How the 'Sand Mafia' Is Stealing India's Water
India's Water Is Being Stolen
One Grain of Sand at a Time
in case you missesd it
Mar 5, 2017 3:00 PM CST

India's Water Is Being Stolen One Grain of Sand at a Time

Inside India's 'sand mafia'

(Newser) - India's urban areas are growing at an astounding rate. That development requires an immense amount of concrete, which in turn requires an equally immense amount of sand to manufacture. Enter India's "sand mafia." The New York Times takes a deep look at the wide net of...

Miami Beach's Sand Comes From Elsewhere ... Problematically

It's pumped up sand from seafloor, and now that nearby sand is tapped out

(Newser) - Sand may seem like an infinite natural resource, but as cities with beaches around the world know all too well, it's anything but. And Miami Beach, Fla., is standing at a crossroads now that it, along with the US Army Corps of Engineers, has spent years pumping up sand...

Sand Collapse in Oregon Kills Girl, 9

Child trapped under sand for 5 minutes as rescuers raced to dig her out

(Newser) - An end-of-summer trip to an Oregon beach turned tragic for a 9-year-old girl. As CNN reports, Isabel Grace Franks was digging a hole Friday evening with her siblings at Lincoln City's beach when the sand collapsed. "We heard screaming," says one tourist. "At first we thought,...

Fracking Creates Hot Commodity: Sand

Industry looking to gobble 95M pounds this year

(Newser) - The demand for sand is booming, and while you'll find it in cell phones and solar panels, the real beast driving up prices is the rather controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, which mixes sand with water and chemicals and pumps it underground to force out natural gas. As the...

Kansas City Woman Surrounds Home With Sand

80 tons of it replaces lawn, though some neighbors hate it

(Newser) - It is the ultimate low-maintenance "lawn": A Kansas City, Missouri, homeowner said goodbye to grass by shipping in 80 tons of sand around her suburban home, reports KCTV . "Now being over 60, I've decided that I've owned the house for 33 years and that I wasn'...

Family of Woman Who Suffocated in Sand to Get $80M

Laura Miera died in 2002 after a tractor-trailer struck her car, buried it in sand

(Newser) - A judge has awarded nearly $80 million to the family of a woman who died in 2002 when a tractor-trailer struck her car and buried it in sand, suffocating the woman as teachers and students at a nearby school frantically tried to dig her out. Laura Miera had just dropped...

Sandy Left NY Island 54% Less Sandy

The hurricane has left Fire Island vulnerable to future storms, finds new study

(Newser) - Miami Beach isn't the only one running low on sand —a new study has found more than half of the sand on New York's Fire Island was washed away during Hurricane Sandy, LiveScience reports. Though 18% of the barrier island's sand has been replenished, the...

Florida Beaches Desperately Seeking Sand

With supplies running out, officials go looking for a new source

(Newser) - Some South Florida beaches are running low on one very critical supply: sand. The Army Corps of Engineers had been bringing in sand for beaches in Miami-Dade and Broward counties from offshore sources, but now those reserves have run out. That's a problem not just for castle-building enthusiasts, but...

Dune May Obliterate Darth Vader's Childhood Home

 Dune May Obliterate 
 Darth Vader's 
 Childhood Home 
in case you missed it
Jul 27, 2013 7:16 AM CDT

Dune May Obliterate Darth Vader's Childhood Home

Star Wars set threatened by sand: scientists

(Newser) - Poor Anakin Skywalker: First he turns into Darth Vader, and now his childhood home is about to be eaten by a wind-blown sand dune. The Tunisia set for the Tatooine city of Mos Espa in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is expected to soon be buried by the...

Boy Pulled From 11 Feet of Sand After Dune Collapse

Dune along Lake Michigan collapsed

(Newser) - A 8-year-old boy is in the hospital after being buried beneath 11 feet of sand for three-plus hours yesterday, reports CBS . The northern Indiana child was playing on dunes at a park along the shore of Lake Michigan, when one apparently collapsed, covering him even as his family scrambled to...

'Super Sand' Makes Water Safe to Drink

Rice University filtration idea might ease shortage of drinking water

(Newser) - Access to clean drinking water is not a new problem in the world, and neither is the solution offered by Rice University researchers: sand. Except theirs is an improved version. The regular stuff has long been used to filter water, but it doesn't do a very effective job. Cue...

'Gravel Bandits' Stealing Entire Indonesian Islands

Thieves took more of Krakatoa than monster eruption did

(Newser) - Indonesia is missing a few islands because of black marketeers who have been hauling off huge amounts of sand and gravel to sell to construction projects elsewhere in Asia. At least 24 islands have disappeared completely since 2005, and illegal sand mining has ruined the fishing industries of many others,...

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