Source: Twitter
In Japan there is a beach where the sand is star shaped. It is found in the small Hoshizuna Bay in 'Isla Iriomote and it is famous for its distinctive looking cereals, to the point that every year millions of tourists come here from all over the world to admire it. The Japanese nicknamed him "Hoshizuna no Hama – Star-shaped arena”and they even invented legends to explain their formation. According to popular tradition, the sand of this spectacular beach was born from the encounter between the North Star and the Southern Cross, the antipodes of the firmament.
But what is so special about this Japanese beach? The sand that composes it not only contains quartz, as is usually the case, but also millions of exoskeletons of Foraminifera Baculogiapsina sphaerulata, a few millimeters in size.
Microscopic unicellular organisms protist family, have flavors composed of calcium carbonate capable of taking different forms. The cover of Baculogypsina sphaerulata is “star” shaped, with five or six arms. The organism lives attached to the algae and when it dies it is transported by the waves until the shell lands on the beach and mixes with the beach. In this way, over the centuries an expanse of sand has been formed that presents numerous shapes of small stars.
At first glance the beaches seem the same as any other beach, but when you look closer at the beach you realize the particularity and uniqueness of this place. The best places to admire the stars Hatoma Islandsellos son Iriomote and Taketomi beaches dotted with small stars indicated by special signs. In fact, the phenomenon has been known for a long time and has created a continuous flow of tourists to the islands, most of whom come to this area of Japan just to admire the microscopic stars.
