Sand Beach - Acadia National Park - Bar Harbor, ME
Posted by: 
NorStar
N 44° 19.729 W 068° 11.034
19T E 565067 N 4908718
Sand Beach on the southeast side of Mt. Desert Island is unusual in that 70% of the 'sand' is shell fragments.
Waymark Code: WMQ48X
Location: Maine, United States
Date Posted: 12/16/2015
Views: 8
Near Bar Harbor, within Acadia National Park, is Sand Beach, an unusual beach shaped by specific geological and biological processes.
The beach is along the main road known as the Park Loop. It is on the southeast part of Mt. Desert Island - there are signs that indicate the entrance. Depending on the time of year, this may be a hard place to park at. At the parking lot, there is a building where you can change clothes to enjoy the beach best. From there, there is a path down to the beach.
The beach is not very wide, about 700 ft wide, and 100-200 feet deep. It is sandwiched between two granite heads. The beach is unusual in that the components of the beach is 70% shell fragments, the remainder being quartz and feldspar. The shell fragments came from the local shell life in the ocean, and the minerals are from the granite cliffs and other rock in the area.
The book (referenced below) states that it is unusual to have a beach with such a high ratio of shell fragments along a cold coast. The gulf is so productive that more shells are produced than are pounded and dissolved. Only in Georgia on the east coast do you find another beach with that kind of ratio. The book also notes that there is a freshwater stream that flows along the eastern edge of the beach. At the right conditions, the water level drops below the sand, often making the sand appear to boil.
Sources:
Acadia Maine
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visit link)
Acadia National Park
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visit link)
D. W. Caldwell, Roadside Geology of Maine, Mountain Press, Missoula, MT, 1998, p. 87.