Answer
Hello Sandra,
We really didn’t count all the grains of sand and we certainly won’t do that ;-).
The question is: what is sand?
All natural rock (but also fossils) material between 0.063 mm and 2 mm is called sand. That’s really small…
What do these grains (types) consist of: from almost all types of rocks, minerals, shells…
Where can you find them: the beach, the sahara, on the seabed, in the seabed, in the ground… Even some rock types consist of sands bound together with a kind of natural cement. So sand is very common…
And if very small particles occur in very many places, we are already moving to astronomically large quantities…
So to answer your question: more than you can ever imagine!
Answered by
prof. Dr. David Van Rooy
Marine geology (sedimentology, paleoceanography, micropaleontology, deep water ecosystems)
http://www.ugent.be
.