"In the world of sand sales, solid information is hard to come by" 😂😂😂

He's finally dune it, he's finally made a video about sand. He shore has some interesting topics for videos.

From the ultra pure sand used to make silicon wafers to the very-specific-size-grain sand used for concrete... thrown in with a Star Wars sand reference. Yup, Jon, you've become a Sand Nerd :P

I'm curious why a mix of rock and sand isn't used. As a mining engineer in Australia. We could send them untold volumes of NAF (Non Acid Forming) crushed waste rock from any number of mines in whatever size they want for penny's on the $$. I mean, presently it's just being dumped on the waste rock pile. It's already blasted and stockpiled. It literally has no value here. In fact it represents a significant cost to keep expanding the waste rock dump. Thus if someone wanted to pay transport it would represent a cost saving here. Would surly reduce the volume of sand required and provide a more stable foundation it a blend was used.

It’s crazy how interconnected and complex and specialized our civilization is. Makes you realize how fragile it all is.

The benefit of the polder model from the Netherlands, is that you expose fertile soil to the air. Inland lakes were pumped dry with windmills centuries ago (1400s a few and mostly took off after the 1500s). The ground is then available for agriculture. The cities founded in polders, then become major economic centers today; the 4 largest cities in the Netherlands today are below or at sea level today. Half the country would flood if the dykes disappeared over night. However, the images show in the video are from a different project. A major inland bay was dyked off with a major piece of construction at the mouth of the bay (1933). It allows regulating its water flow, to prevent the sea from bringing in salt water as the tide rises. The inland lake is filled with river water, which left a rich clay sediment at the bottom of the new lake. Around the same time this large landmass was dyked off (1924), adding the 12th province to the Netherlands. Later a second landmass (13:58 image in the video) was reclaimed. What is supposed to become the 2nd largest airport for the Netherlands, has been build on this reclaimed land, but is yet to open. Reclaiming land at the sea is entirely different, since sand is a poor soil for agriculture. The Netherlands is a river delta, where long rivers deposit clay on the bottom of bays. Your best application of sandy reclaimed land is usually construction or housing. And nobody in their right mind would dyke off an area with fertile clay and dump sand on it to raise the land level... The Netherlands happens to benefit from the these clay deposites and was able to quickly convert a salty sea bay into agricultural land. However... the number of people that moved here cant even support a major hospital financially... Its main hospital went bankrupt a few years ago.

I love how diverse your videos are, subbed for cpu videos but keep coming back for the interesting other topics

I have just returned from 3 days camping on sand beach and have sand everywhere. I hate sand now. Otherwise, cool topic for video!

Singapore sand issue. I still remember how contentious this issue in Malaysia.

Great video as usual. But a minor factual error in here. "Marine Parade HDB apartments now regularly sell for millions of SGD$ now". That is incorrect. Only last month did Marine Parade have its first ever 7-digit sale, when a single unit changed hands for S$1.01M. It's rare enough that when it happens, that it makes the local news. I suspect you may be confusing this with private condos in the general vicinity.

Not many people in the world can make a 15 min. presentation on sand so interesting.

I was in Singapore in 2018 and it's amazing how much they keep expanding, understandably so. They are a powerhouse and when your country is just a big island, it's important to keep your status and improve for both the economy and your people. Bet Malaysia regrets kicking them out now. We'd love to expand our territory peacefully through reunification but alas.

The sand market is just so hard to grasp, the data so granular!

When I saw the title of this one, I knew it was an immediate winner - fantastic video, it’s exactly one of those “you don’t even know that this was a problem; here’s why you’re wrong, it matters” *chefs kees*

Singapore has already find a solution to this problem by using waste Ash and construction waste without have to import from other.Singapore is a small island with zero resources of any kind so the government have to keep finding way to produce resources out of nothing.

“I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating - and it gets everywhere.” Always found it kind of funny though that the Middle East with all its sand, can’t actually use it for construction because it’s too smooth.

Singapore has been stealing the sand of nearby Indonesian island using vacuum ships, leaving the island with tiny chunk left or dissapear completely. What a shame.

Always fascinating and informative!

So lucky I found this channel. Good ass videos my Asian brother.

Congratulations on 300K subscribers 🎉🎊! Asianometry is one of the first channels I put on Patreon after watching only one of the videos! Thank you so much for the informative, educational videos.

Well, Singapore has expanded an island via reclaiming the sea using incinerated garbage. Look up Pulau Semakau. The government certainly came up with tonnes of ideas.

Only thing to add is that SG is looking into using the incinerated trash as reclamed land, see Semakau Landfill where portions of the landfill that are full have been converted into parks / green spaces for settling

Excellent information, thank you.

Few years ago Cambodia said they had exported x Billion tones to S'pore. Yet S'pore said they'd imported x by x by x Billion tones from Cambodia!

congrats on 300k subs!

These projects are so massive. A sight to behold.

The photo of the HDB shown at 2:26 is the actual HDB at marine parade neighbourhood, not some random HDB photo. I'm really impressed with the accuracy of your research...

In Devon, in southwest England, there is a former landfill site slowly being washed away by the sea because it was literally on the beach. Hopefully modern developments using landfill have a better strategy for combating erosion.

@Asianometry Very interesting and diverse topics. Please do one researching about the implication of mountains and hills destruction ongoing inside PRC 😉

I remember sand dredging being a problem in my home country as well. It was so bad that the environmental minister had to keep flying in Army choppers to document it all - fortunately she was part of the family that owned the largest TV media company at that time so she was always in the headlines and so succeeded in her advocacy.

You Missed the Traditional Wooden beam and boulder method. Timber beams back filled by rough "locking" shaped boulders and topped with clay soil is a traditional sea wall method. I think this earthen damp method has worked up to around 300ft deep or around 100meters. It still runs into the issues of shipment and wood support maitanence, but can use much less enviormentally strained reasources than sand and steel.

Another great Singapore Video !

Anakin: I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Asianometry: People use sand for a variety of purposes Anakin: LIKE HATING IT Singapore: It's over Anakin, I have the high ground! Anakin: You underestimate my power- Singapore, wielding the power of sand: *No u*

My favorite PowerPoint presentation channel

I was just watching a Lee Kuan yew interview from Harvard and he was saying that he basically got scammed for buying a lot of glass making machinery but Singapore had no sand so he had to sell it 😂

The sand must flow

You’re making important work and a lot to think about…. Waste could be turned to sand etc… Thank you!

This is fascinating, thank you

Thank you 🙏 again for your EXCELLENT work 🙏👏👏👏

Very interesting and unknown subject!

I wonder if we can use crushed glass in concrete instead of sand, it'll be rough and angular just like sea sand. It would be a good use for harder-to-recycle colored glass.

Bless this channel

Thank you for using SI units. Finally, we all can understand. If someone develops method for converting desert sand into more coarse types, he'll become very rich. I'd work on it, but I'm too stupid for that.

Great video. Surprised you didn't mention sand in the context of silicon wafers, since you're KZfaq's expert there

Love your work…..wish you had talked more about sand itself and a bit more context

Only in July 2022 was there a first HDB flat sold for over 1 million SGD in Marine Parade. there has never been one sold over a million before this. so the "Marine Parade HDB apartments now regularly sell for millions" is absoutely false. we dont have that many millionaires lah hahaha

hi from Mexico. Interesting video. thank you.🙂

Singapore need to begin thinking about how to live with sea water, not sand all the time. An outside the box mentality is critical for the next phase of development in this modern day urban city state.

I didn’t know that you lived in Foster City in San Francisco Bay Area. Many areas in SF Bay are built up with sand, rocks or garbage. Bay Farm Island is built up from garbage as that used to the dump for Oakland & Alameda as I was child growing up in that area seeing that area being built.

Great job.👏👏👏

I love this sand facts channel. I wonder when sand will become so expensive that it will be just cheaper to build city-space-station

I wonder if they build the land high enough with sea level rise in mind, I know they do with sinking but seems like it could be unusable in not to distant future without tearing down everything and adding more. Im surprised that sand is the preferred material for reclamation. Also wonder why they build land rather than structures into the sea floor or floating?

Awesome video.

Could desert sand be used to replace the river sand that has been mined? Kind of like replanting tress after you harvest the old?

Thanks for this video

As you say it is reason for criticism, I have never heard any critics about my country constructing the 'Maasvlakte' at Rotterdam to increase the harbor area. This is not a polder area.

With the number of rivers drying up this summer, sand mining can be done with a bulldozer instead of a dredge.

This was way more intrestring then I tought.

This is like the opposite of clickbait. A video with a seemingly mundane title that inspires genuine curiosity. "Why do they need sand? And where will they get it?? I must know."

Now I want to see a movie about gang wars between Sand-trafficking mafias in Indonesia 8:23

As someone that lives in the american southwest id much rather my government sell off our near unlimited supply of sand instead of our very limited supply of water

"Sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating" - Love the opening quote from Star Wars !

Fascinating.

fantastic data

On the Marina Parade reclamation…There are no HDB apartments in Singapore that sell for millions of Singapore dollars.

Maybe they can ask Anakin where his sand is from? I heard its coarse and rough and gets everywhere. Some good properties to look at.

11:43 this has lead to some sinking issues, but the idea still stands... lol

"isn't it like penguins needing to import sand?" well... yes.

Does China PRC's Taiwan Island Province have a sand-needy problem? As recently, in early August 2022, over a week ago, the mainland China PRC has recently halted "sand exports" to Taiwan (or halted all sand imports into Taiwan) China didn't specify what kind of sand: whether dredged waterworn sand, or mined high purity quartzite into sand (for polysilicon mfr) nor mentioned specifically from where the sand source came from

I recommend the book "The World in a grain", if you want details on how critical sand is for our economy, along with its impact,

WA State has 12 million cubic feet of sand, piled 230 feet high, at the headquarters of Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, created by excavating for Grand Coulee Dam. It's almost like a strategic reserve.

I'm probably missing something, but isn't it possible to just use regular "dirt" or soil? Like dig a hole in the Cambodian forest with minimal environmental impact and export that clay (like a quarry)?

First time I hauled sand from Houston to Wyoming I was very confused.

Surely desert sand would be suitable for land reclamation? Unlike cement which requires sand from rivers or the sea

This video gave me semantic satiation over the word 'sand'

underground soil can create underground city

I thought that sand itself was a terrible foundation material, yes it might be for temporary walkways and roads but as far as the buildings maybe you were talking about the concrete piers it takes to drive into the bedrock to make a solid building? Others in barrier Islands Candy Magic biscuit ever have any sort of longevity

"isn't it like penguins needing to import sand?" Did he mean snow? Really flubbed that analogy lol

Perhaps Singapore can learn from Venice. Also, how about use desert sand and sea sand to make glass, and use crushed glass to make sand?

Is the problem with “leaching” or “leaking”?

Love the Star Wars references

Why do I feel like as if this is a really well researched class presentation on a very interesting subject?

2:33 The power of sand compels you! *Throws sand at Darth Vader*

Does sand for land reclamation need to be beach sand or can they use dessert sand?

It’s currently cheaper to steal that look into long term changes. The Gobi & Sahara seem to be good candidates for improving desert sand to sea sand for new construction. Kind of a dead end in terms of findings.

Can they not use slightly larger rock for this?

How costly is it to dredge from the deep ocean? I'd imagine the equipment cost will be much higher, but there will be less environmental damage and less damage to islands. Though is deep ocean sand too similar to desert sand to be usable?

Land is cheap in small countries where nothing of value is taking place. Land is expensive in Vancouver, though Canada is big. Land is only valuable, if there is something of value going on right where the land is; so country size matters not.

The Taiwanese Deer you use as your aviator is charming. You topic is timely and certainly it’s needed to be discussed in detail. Sand use needs to be evaluated. In an oil drill site off California concrete tetrapods were created with aggregate and sand on top. The tetrapods also created habitat and it’s still in use today built in the 1960s

Rock solid video brother. Please make a video on India too.

Love it. "I can't do a video that isn't connected to chip manufacture!!"....."Waaaait a minute!!"

I love how unbiased you were on this complex and political subject.

come on man Sahara Desert has an endless supply of sand so does saudi arabia

How about using limestone mountains for reclamation projects? Supply is unlimited & environmental concerns are minimal. Sand should be used only for concreting?

You should visit the Netherlands for 2 reasons. First making polders was not only in the west but also in the north. Groningen and Friesland. Many by monks. Second : the Dutch harvest a lot of sand and small rocks from land, pits, lakes, rivers and sea. Their fleet of dredges is problaby the largest in the world. Look at the artificial island of Dubai. Dredging sand is not seen as a problem for environment at all. Many pits are used now for recreational purposes. And sometimes to dump cars involved in crimes, as the pits are deep. In the past they used to skim the agricultural soil by 2 meters, the layer of pure sand under the fertile soil, but I think that is not allowed anymore.

This is a huge and concerning topic. I learned about it a few years ago. It's too bad not enough people know about the situation. When I've mentioned it to other people or watch other videos there's always this hype about new technologies to replace sand. Sure, sure, but how many decades before it actually becomes a reality?

can tunneling be a source of sand? I imagine digging around deep under the sea or under the city can create plenty of industrial work space (caverns are great for controlling air pollution and heat), aid in transportation, and provide shelter without disrupting the surface.

12:45 that Arabian sand is so fine that it gets into everything, right down to gearboxes.

ummmmm @ 12:35 "penguins needing to import sand" ???? I don't get it.... did you mean something else? like 'penguins needing to import ice" ???

There I was, thinking sands were just sands ... but then I realize, once again, my own ignorance on a matter I thought to have little complexity. Thank God for the KZfaqrs I guess.