Sands at Camargue
This photo comes from the nature reserve known as Camargue, on the Mediterranean coast of France. The sands are found in a protected area, with several kilometers of beaches with very limited disturbance by man.
The sands started off a long way away. This area is close to the delta where the Rhone river enters the Mediterranean Sea and thus the sands here are likely dominated by sediment that was carried down the Rhone.
Much of that sediment is sourced in the sediments churned up in the last glaciation. Giant pieces of rock were ground down by glaciers in the Alps until they reached these grain sizes, sands and powders. Today most of those glaciers have melted away, but the sediment is still being reworked, carried down to the seas and oceans by rivers like the Rhone and creating scenes like this.
-JBB
Image credit: Dominique Chanut (Creative commons license share) http://www.flickr.com/photos/101490213@N04/11006536683
http://www.arlestourisme.com/beaches.html http://www.camargue-en-provence.com/beach-saintes-maries-de-la-mer.html