Mountains to Sea The Journey of Sand

Written and Illustrated by

Rachael L. Grabowski

Acknowledgments

This book was developed as part of a grant awarded by the Georgia Sea Grant program in 2010-2011 to Dr. Maryellen Timmons (grant E/EDU-1-Timmons) at the University of Georgia’s Marine Education Center and Aquarium, a branch of the University’s Marine Extension Service.

Thanks to Dr. Clark Alexander (Skidaway Institute of Oceanography) for his guidance through geological processes. Thanks to the following Marine Extension Service faculty and staff for their contributions: Anne Lindsay for her editing, creativity, and guidance/support through this whole project; Dr. Maryellen Timmons for her editing, commenting, and overall guidance/support; John Crawford for his natural history recommendations; Stephanie Edgecombe, Mary Sweeney-Reeves, Dodie Sanders, and Victoria Heirs for editing and comments; and Ben Frick for reading and commenting. Thank you to the entire MAREX staff, my family, and friends for their support.

Mountains to Sea - The Journey of Sand was developed, authored, and illustrated by Rachael L. Grabowski, Georgia Sea Grant Education Intern (2010-2011), University of Georgia Marine Extension Service, Marine Education Center and Aquarium, 30 Ocean Science Circle, Savannah, GA 31411.

Mountains to Sea The Journey of Sand

Written and Illustrated by

Rachael L. Grabowski

The University of Georgia Marine Extension Service and Aquarium

Skidaway Island, Georgia

Way up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northern Georgia, there was a speckled granite rock, made of dark feldspar and clear quartz. The rock rested on a

mountain top that looked out over the geological regions of Georgia: the mountains, the piedmont,

and the coastal plain. The view was majestic from the top of the mountains!

Over time, the rock changed. Water and temperature shifts weathered the rock and created a small crack. The crack grew larger and larger until one day a

seed fell into the narrow space.

The seed grew into a beautiful Blue Ridge

blueberry plant. The plant’s sturdy root system crept

deeper and deeper into the crack and, without warning, the rock fell away in pieces

from the mountainside.

Down the steep slope, the gravel tumbled. A shower of glittery granite clattered down with a SPLASH into

the river below. Geologists call a single piece of gravel of this size a cobble.

The water in the river was cool, clear, and fresh. The plum-sized cobble rushed

with the river. The weathered granite cobble

started the long, slow journey and eroded with

the flow of the river.

The river trip through the mountains was wild. The granite cobble slammed and

smashed against the river's rocky bottom. Fierce collisions reduced the cobble to

what geologists call a pebble. The pea-sized pebble continued down the river

and rolled SMACK into a boulder. A Coosawattae crayfish moved the pebble into a pile of rubble to protect its burrow

where the crayfish hid and waited for nightfall.

Nature had a bigger plan. The wind blew, the clouds turned dark gray, and the rain poured! Billions of rain drops plummeted to the river’s

surface. It rained for hours and the river flooded its banks. The rising water pulled more

sediment into the rushing currents. As a result, the crayfish’s shelter teetered in the water and then toppled, scattering rubble in all directions.

The weathered granite pebble continued its long, slow journey and eroded with the flow of

the river.

As the pebble tumbled downstream, the land became less and less mountain-like and more and

more hill-like. As it travelled into Georgia's Piedmont, the pebble became a seed-sized

granule.

Georgia red clay stained the water a rusty iron color. Oak, hickory, and pine forests

bordered the river’s course. Eventually, the granule wedged into a pile of sticks. A

caddisfly larva inched its way toward the granule. The larva drooled a sticky, silken

substance from its lower jaw onto the granule and put both into place on the portable case surrounding its body. It

drooled again to glue its case to a nearby boulder as camouflage. Soon after, the caddisfly larva sealed the case with a

special plate made of silk.

Inside the protective case, the larva developed into a pupa. When the time was right, the pupa ripped open the case with its powerful

jaws and the granule shook free. The pupa

emerged and wriggled to the water’s surface where it began a new life as an

adult caddisfly. The weathered granite granule

continued its long, slow journey and eroded with

the flow of the river.

As the granule bumped along downstream, a loud roar filled the air

above the river. Suddenly, the water took a long vertical dive and so did the granule. A WATERFAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!

On the FALL-LINNEEEEEEEEEEE!!

The granule swirled and whirled at the bottom of the waterfall and moved into Georgia's Coastal

Plain. The bottom of the river bed was more sandy than rocky. Root systems from nearby

loblolly pines invaded the river’s edge. Sluggishly, the water flowed along the flat terrain and the gran-

ule rolled along with the gentle current.

A male bluehead chub appeared and used its jaw and snout to build a mound of sediment. The fish excavated a nest in the mound and

filled it with a few eggs.

As the chub added the granule to another mound, a giant eyeball drifted into view. The chub spotted the eyeball of the motionless longnose gar just a little too late. The gar snatched up the chub with

one quick strike and in the process, seized the granule as well.

With the granule riding along in its stomach, the gar swam leisurely on its way to the ocean. River swamp widened the river’s banks, and covered the roots of cypress, tupelo, and sweet gum. The water became less and less fresh and more and more salty. The gar

excreted the granule and it settled to the bottom.

As the river neared Georgia’s coast, maritime forests appeared. Live oaks draped in Spanish moss leaned over the river’s surface. Further

down the river, the sky opened up and the trees were replaced by grasses. Carried by the brackish water, the granule entered into a broad, flat estuary, bordered by acres of lush, green salt marsh.

The air was filled with sulfur gases that smelled

like rotten eggs. Smooth cord grass dominated

the surrounding salt marsh habitat and clumps of

oysters cluttered the edge of the estuary. Gooey

silt and clay sediments provided a habitat for the

specialized creatures of the salt marsh.

The incoming tide pushed the granule up a small tidal creek and into the high marsh where it was

discovered by a sand fiddler crab. The female fiddler scraped the granule up with her two tiny claws,

sorted food from the sandy mass in her mouth, and spat the leftovers out in a tiny pellet. Millions of tiny spit balls littered the high marsh. Out went the tide and the weathered granule continued its long, slow

journey and eroded with the flow, out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Once there, the granule gently shifted with the sediments at the bottom. Embedded in the sandy

bottom was an underwater castle. Its sandy tower was

shaped like an upside down ice cream cone. Within the

cone-shaped tower, lived an ice cream cone worm that used its

golden bristles to sort through the sediment. The worm selected the granule and added it to the fragile

walls of the cone.

In the same shallow area, a horseshoe crab scooted along the sandy bottom in

search of worms and clams to eat. Using its hard exoskeleton, the invertebrate

bulldozed into the sand cone and destroyed the beautiful sand masterpiece. In the process, the granule was trapped in

the animal's book gills.

As the horseshoe crab moved toward the beach, waves picked the animal up from the sand and flipped it over. The horseshoe crab squirmed a little, digging its telson into the sand to flip its

body back over. Having righted itself, the horseshoe crab cleaned its book gills with its pusher legs and dropped the

granule into the wild surf.

The surf tossed the granule about and broke it down further into a grain of sand about the size of a sugar crystal. In came the tide which pushed the sand grain further up the beach of a wild barrier island.

Under the light of a full moon and many stars, a loggerhead sea turtle dug a nest cavity and included the sand grain into it. She laid one hundred golf ball sized eggs and then

covered the nest.

In about two month’s time, turtle hatchlings emerged at the surface of the cavity and pushed the sand grain toward

the surface. The little loggerheads scurried over the sand grain toward the

ocean using the light over the horizon as their guide. The wind picked up and swept

the sand grain further up the beach toward the dunes. There, it lodged in the

wrack lying along the high tide line.

Over time, more sand joined the sand grain in the wrack and a small dune grew. A visiting American goldfinch dropped the seeds of a sea oat into the tiny dune. As the sea oats grew, the dune grew.

The tiny sand grain finally rested as part of the barrier island's dune system. Along with billions of other sand grains, it protected the coastline from ocean storms. The story ends here, but the sand

grain's journey continues. As the tides ebb and flow, and the sea winds blow, the sand grain shifts on Georgia's ever-changing coast.

Glossary

* Definitions have been taken from:

Badders, William, Douglas Carnine, Ph. D., Bobby Jeanpierre, Ph. D., James Feliciani, Carolyn Summers, Ph. D., and Catherine Valentino. 2009. Houghton Mifflin Georgia Science.

Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA.

Barrier Island*: An offshore piece of land, made of sand, that protects the mainland from storms; islands are in constant flux as sand is continually moving by wind/wave action Book Gill: The gills of a horseshoe crab that open up like the pages of a book to help the organism swim and breathe Brackish: A mixture of fresh and salt water Clay: A fine grained, natural material that can create a slick surface; clay holds water better than sand Coastal Plain: A flat region of Georgia that used to be covered by water Cobble: Gravel, 64-256 mm in diameter

Dune*: A mound of sand formed by wind and moving water

Eroded (Erosion)*: The movement of weathered rock material from one place to another Estuary*: A place near the coast where fresh water from streams and rivers mixes with ocean water to

form brackish areas Excrete: To discharge waste from the body Exoskeleton: A hard outer body covering that is molted (shed) in order for the animal to grow

Fall-line: A dividing line between the Piedmont and Coastal Plain of Georgia; it is called this because of the occurrence of water falls and rapids. The water falls from the piedmont and turns into navigable rivers in the coastal plain Feldspar: A mineral found in granite

Granite: A course-grained, hard, igneous rock made of quartz, mica, and other minerals Granule: Gravel,2-4 mm in diameter

High Marsh: A zone of the salt marsh that is higher in elevation with distinct plants and animals Invertebrate: An animal that has no backbone

Larva: A worm-like stage early in an insect’s lifecycle

Maritime Forest: A forest that is found near the sea consisting of salt tolerant trees and shrubs Mountain Region: A region of Georgia that is made up of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian Plateau, and Ridge & Valley

Pebble: Gravel, 4-64 mm in diameter Piedmont*: An area of gently rolling land between a coast and mountains Pupa: The inactive life stage connecting the larva and adult stage of many insect species

Quartz: A hard crystalline mineral found in granite

Rock*: A solid material made up of one or more minerals

Salt Marsh: A wetland near the coast dominated by salt marsh grasses Sand: Loose granular, gritty particles of weathered and eroded rock, finer than gravel and courser than

dust Sea Oat: A coastal grass that stabilizes sand dunes with its elaborate root system Sediment: particles of sand, soil, and bits of rock suspended in water or air. Silt: Very fine particles of sediment that is moved by water; larger than clay but lighter than sand

Telson (of a Horseshoe Crab): A long, pointed tail with spines along the top Tidal Creek: A small stream in the salt marsh that is affected by tides

Weathering*: The slow breaking apart or wearing away of rock into smaller pieces Wrack: Dried, dead, smooth cord grass (Spartina spp.) from the salt marsh found at the high tide line of

the beach

Georgia Performance Standards: S3E1. Students will investigate the physical

attributes of rocks and soils.

S3L1. Students will investigate the habitats

of different organisms and the dependence

of organisms on their habitat. https://www.georgiastandards.org/Standards/Pages/

BrowseStandards/BrowseGPS.aspx

National Science Education Standards:

Earth and Space

Properties of Earth Materials

Changes in Earth and Sky

Life Science

Characteristics of Organisms

Life Cycles of Organisms

Organisms and Environments

Physical Science

Properties of Objects and Materials

Position and Motion of Objects

Personal and Social Perspectives

Types of Resources

Changes in Environments

Science and Technology in Local Challenge

Science and Technology

Made by Humans

National Science Education Standards: Observe,

Interact, Change, Learn. Washington, DC:

National Acad., 2008.

Ocean Literacy

(1)The Earth has one big ocean with many

features.

(2) The ocean and life in the ocean shape the

features of the Earth.

(5)The ocean supports a great diversity of

life and ecosystems.

(6)The ocean and humans are inextricably

interconnected.

http://oceanliteracy.wp2.coexploration.org/