"Bioluminescent plankton"???

[Rita]

We were out on Grayton Beach later one night and my daughter started running her hand across the sand and discovered "glowy thingys" that would glow momentarily. They were quite small and just beneath the sand. We couldn't stop dragging our feet to expose their little lights, but aren't sure what we discovered. It was so cool!! (It was a new moon so it was a pretty dark night on the beach.)

I'll do a google search to find out, but I bet one of you will have my answer before I can get it researched....

Might they be bioluminescent plankton? That was all we could think of. If so, were they brought up from deeper by storms or are they always there?


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[DD]

We were out on Grayton Beach later one night and my daughter started running her hand across the sand and discovered "glowy thingys" that would glow momentarily. They were quite small and just beneath the sand. We couldn't stop dragging our feet to expose their little lights, but aren't sure what we discovered. It was so cool!! (It was a new moon so it was a pretty dark night on the beach.)

I'll do a google search to find out, but I bet one of you will have my answer before I can get it researched....

Might they be bioluminescent plankton? That was all we could think of. If so, were they brought up from deeper by storms or are they always there?




.

Rita, we've seen those too! They are soooo cool. I'm sure AB or SJ will have an scientific answer for ya!

 

[aquaticbiology]

two sources - bioluminescent algae, plus quartz sand piezoelectric effect

on a dark moonless night, check out how you can still see the waves breaking

then run down the beach and quickly look back and check out your glowing footprints

 

[Rita]

Thanks Aquatic!