Glass Beach, California, USA

 

GLASSBEACH, A Must See

Ocean coves covered with rounded Sea Glass!

GLASS BEACH: We're not talking the occasional piece of seaglass as you stroll along. These coves are covered with sea glass, some more than others. Obviously, the easily accessed coves have less glass remaining, but coves beyond are dazzling with huge amounts of sea glass that have been rounded by the rolling waves!!

WHAT IS SEA GLASS?
It is the weathering, tumbling, and aging in sand and saltwater that gives real sea glass, its unique "frosted" appearance, and "soft" texture. A process called "hydration" is responsible for the pitting. As the glass soaks in the sea water, the lime and soda used in making the glass leaches out and leaves little pits on the surface. Sometimes the soda and lime also mix with other minerals, forming sparkling crystals on the surface of the glass. Hydration, or pitting, does not occur in fresh water because the PH of the fresh water is wrong. Technically, fresh water glass is called "beach glass", while salt water glass is called "sea glass".

You might also find very unique shapes and fused combinations of colors here. This is "Fire Glass" and Fire Glass that is also Sea Glass is very rare. Fort Bragg's glass beaches are rare ocean sites where they also burned everything. This is because the ocean was not carrying anything away. They didn't know when they put in these sites that the rock formations here set up wave patterns that keep everything on the beach, even in the worst of storms. So as things began to back up, they began to burn and finally had to keep moving the dump sites. It was this that gave us our beautiful "Fire/Sea Glass" and multiple coves covered in sea glass.

Since green, brown and clear (white) are the most common glass that was disposed of, the majority pieces are those colors. Occasionally, you'll find pottery chips and rarer colors of glass. Only a few items were actually stored in red, blue, lavender, purple or pink glass containers. Should you see these colors, they most likely came from these items.