Eons of exposure to the breaking waves of the surf and wind manipulated the sand crystals into a soft almost flour like powder. The beaches also exhibited a highly reflective quality about them created by the gold mica-like particles of the shells of a vast number of aquatic arthropod species as well as microscopic organisms, primarily the douradea species of algae, mixed in with the pearlescent particulate of offshore coral reefs. The combination of these particles gave the beaches their namesake as they resembled gold powder. The rarest of the golden beaches were the black gold beaches of the equatorial regions. The sand had a heavy load of ancient volcanic silica. These were considered to be some of the most ancient exposed sands of the planet from a time long before the power of wind a