Whilst on a photography expedition to the Vanuatu archipelago I was able to experience the variety of beach types. Vanuatu a wide variety of colours and textures of beach sands on offer; white fine grain sand, coarse coral sand and volcanic ash black sand.
Due to the Volcanic heritage of Vanuatu, lying on the edge of the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, black sand beaches can found on a large number of the islands. There are still a number of active volcanoes amongst its 82 islands, both above and below sea level which has led to the creative of many fringing coral reefs easily accessible from shore. Vanuatu’s location also sees it quite prone to earthquakes.
Volcanic ash appears the world over and its always the same, the blackest thing on earth to photograph. Luckily the volcanic ash at this beach had mixed with the coral sand helping to break it up.
The stormy weather in the region has let to lots of drift wood washing ashore as well as large amounts of soil (and coral) erosion.
