Photo: Chaiel Shaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
REVERE Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — There's a new color splashed on the beaches of Revere these days, and it's not the remnants of someone’s mixed berry smoothie or spilled grape soda.
If you look closely, the beach is stained a pinkish, purple color.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, the color comes from deposits of the minerals rose quartz and garnet found in the White Mountains. DCR said water and wind-worn minerals in rock are carried in river waters until they meet the ocean and become deposited on barrier beaches, most commonly north of Boston.
We mostly see the garnet and quartz deposits in winter as storms erode the dunes, leaving the heavier minerals exposed. During the spring and summer, the lighter white quartz sand blows back over the dunes covering the heavier colored sand.
More common on North Shore beaches, the colorful spread on Revere Beach stretches for hundreds of feet across the shore creating ribbons of color in the sand.
WBZ’s Chaiel Schaffel spoke to residents about the beach's new look that will probably be covered by summer. "I like the color, it’s interesting. We didn’t know what it was from," said one resident.
Another resident said he had never noticed the purple-pink coloring before.
WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.
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