Sand is used throughout industry. From the glass in mobile phones to base for roads, sand is used across the economy. In fact, sand and gravel are the most extracted materials on the planet, exceeding that of fossil fuels.
Standard models assume sand grains are spherical, which is fine for common sands made up of ground-down silica and quartz rocks. However, carbonate sands derived from shells, corals and the skeletons of marine animals tend to be elliptical, less dense and have more holes and edges. New research that has taken this into account finds that existing models underestimate the surface area of carbonate sands by 35 per cent. The research has shown that standard engineering models also overestimate transport of carbonate sands on the seafloor by more than 20 per cent and underestimate suspended transport of this sand by at least 10 per cent.
Nature reported in 2019 that illegal sand mining is happening in about 70 countries and hundreds of people have been killed in battles over sand in the previous decade.