Whistling sand beaches in the British Isles

Beaches which squeak or whistle when walked on have been known for many years. The phenomenon is shown to be more common than has previously been thought: sand from thirty-three beaches in the British Isles has been found to whistle. Size distributions of all these sands have been obtained by sieving, and the particle shape distribution in the peak size fractions has been measured by using a vibratory shape-sorting table. A physical mechanism has been suggested for the production of the whistle, which depends upon a close size grading coupled with a spherical grain shape. The locations at which whistling sand occurs correlate quite well with the landward ends of bed-load partings in the continental shelf sand transportation pattern as determined from side-scan Asdic surveys.