What a beautiful example of the worlds beyond the grasp of the naked human eye. Discovery has a wonderful little gallery.

Prismatic mineral fragments, microscopic coral pieces, tiny organisms, shells…what appears at a distance to be a mass of miniature brown rocks hosts a surprising array of shapes, colors and patters.

Under a microscope, these grains of sand reveal much about the biological and geological history of the local environment. Volcanic eruptions, eroded mountains, even remnants of decaying man-made structures.

See the rest of the gallery.