A handful of sand contains countless grains, which interact with each other via friction and impact forces as they slip through your fingers. When a handful becomes a load in an excavator bucket, those interactions multiply exponentially.

Wind isn't acting alone in the geological process behind erosion, sand dunes and airborne dust particles called aerosols. The other culprit is electricity.

Booming noises in deserts can sometimes be heard after a natural slumping event or during a sand avalanche generated by humans sliding down the slip face of a large dune.

Microbes that result in beach closures and health advisories when detected at unsafe levels in the ocean also have been detected in the sand, according to a recent study by a team of Stanford scientists.

Dutch researcher Joris van den Berg has developed a mathematical model to predict the movement of sand waves. Sand waves are formed by an interaction between the tidal current and sand. They are larger than sand ripples on the beach but smaller than sandbanks. Sand waves largely determine the shape of the sea floor in the southern part of the North Sea.