Just before Christmas, Judith and I were slightly alarmed to hear a whirring noise outside the house. We looked out of the kitchen window and saw not one, but two, powered paragliders (or paramotorists) flying up and down and then across the estuary. This was a first in nearly 4 months of living here.
It turned out to be a nice day, so we did our usual thing and went for a walk along Benar beach (which is about 9.5 miles or 15km further down the coast). And, hey presto, another came whizzing along! At least this time I had my camera ready. 😊
As we walked along, Judith spotted some small lumps or bubbles emerging from the sand. Neither of us had ever seen anything like it before and I’d be interested to know if anyone else has….(?) They were filled with air because, as soon as you touched the top of them, they deflated. But how on earth they were formed, given that we’re talking, albeit wet, sand here, I don’t think I’ll ever know.
They only appeared, near to the sea, over a stretch of no more than 30 yards (of a very long beach) and, as you can see from the pics below, there were quite a few of them. Their size varied from maybe an inch or 2cm across, up to 8 inches or 20 cm. Very strange (and we’ve not seen any since)!
Alittlebitoutoffocus 
These bubbles are really strange…. but I found the answer I think (see the link below)
https://www.ikhebeenvraag.be/vraag/40975/Hoe-ontstaan-luchtbellen-in-zandstrand-bij-opkomend-tij
It’s in Dutch but you can translate it with Google 😉
Great paraglider too (I also practiced paragliding for more than 7 years – mostly flew in Autria)
Have a nice weekend Mike.
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Many thanks for that link Rudi. It does seem quite logical now that it’s been explained, but I wonder why I’ve never seen it before. (I’ll have to look more often!) We used to get a lot of (non-motorised) paragliders, or parascenders as we called them, when we lived in Switzerland. Obviously a lot more and bigger mountains to take off from there – as in Austria. I did a tandem ride once from just above Montreux and flew out over Lac Léman. Strangely it seemed a lot scarier when you looked down over the water rather than the land!
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Amazing what you can find on Uncle Google……Water rising with the tide below the surface of the beach forces air up through the sand which, when it cannot escape rapidly enough, causes bubbles to form within the uppermost sand layers. Our name for this phenomenon is bubbly sand.
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Yes, thanks for the explanation Brian. Rudi just replied with a link which has a similar explanation. I does look strange though. I’m now wondering what creature (or creatures) must have been underneath that big bubble.
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no snow but you have the sea – just awesome. I love that image of the paraglider with the reflection in the water. I’m looking forward to seeing these bubbles on the Oregon beaches. 🙂
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Thanks Pam. In all my years I’ve never seen those bubbles before, so good luck! (Remember, the tide has to be coming in!) 😊
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I’ve never seen bumps like that either… interesting!!!
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Funnily enough I saw some again yesterday on Embleton beach. Perhaps I just wasn’t looking before. (I almost stopped to point them out to a lady walking by with what looked to be her grandson). 😊
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Lovely images! Not sure what the bubbles are but they make a fantastic abstract art images!
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Thanks again Maxine. It seems they are caused by the sea coming in pushing the air up where little creatures have been burrowing.
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