The Sound of Summer: Why our beaches squeak

Squeaking sand is the sound of summer for many across West Michigan beaches.

But WHY do our beaches squeak?

To answer this, we will first have to look back to when the Great Lakes were formed and zero in on one mineral specifically.

"Our dunes are quartz-rich," Michigan State University professor of Geography Dr. Alan F. Arbogast told me. "It’s a really resistant stone that originated ultimately in Canada in the early part of Earth's history. Then that rock, known as the Canadian Shield was brought to Michigan during glaciations, ground down into sand particles. There are some other minerals in there as well, Feldspar and whatnot, but Quartz is the magic bullet."

Andy Curtis

These Magic Bullets have been fired around and into each other by our prevalent western wind, changing the mineral’s shape and size until the quartz all became small and round. And now when the conditions are just right...

Dr. Peter Wampler

"As you put pressure on [the sand], the grains kind of rub against each other, and friction, that’s what produces the sound,” added Dr. Arbogast.

But, if you plan on taking in a show from our singing sands this summer, keep in mind they don’t always do requests.

"We have a field trip over here usually once a year, and then we'll look at it. Sometimes they squeak sometimes they don't," warned Dr. Peter Wample with Grand Valley State University.

The perfect conditions for the sand to squeak are still up for debate, moisture has a lot to do with it according to Dr. Wampler, but if the sand is silent for your next beach day there are other interesting aspects to our shoreline that should help keep your eyes on the ground.

Andy Curtis

Andy Curtis

"One thing that does come up often when I've come to the beach, and the fact actually, I've had calls on this, people walk on the beach, and they see this black stuff on the on the beach, and they think, oh, it's an oil spill, or it's bad," said Dr. Wampler. "It turns out, it's just magnetic sand that's heavier. And it gets concentrated by the waves and settled, forming these black layers. And it actually is mainly iron. But there is other minerals like Garnet and heavy minerals, including gold a little bit not enough to really make any money out."

That shouldn't matter though because just spending time on our West Michigan beaches— especially on our dunes— is priceless.

“Our dunes are world-class, just world-class,” said Dr. Arbogast.

Squeaking or not.

"They are, you know, unique and beautiful and something we should cherish as Michiganders, you know, that it's something not everybody has," added Dr. Wampler.

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