Some geologists studied the sand of one of the beaches of day D in Normandy. They discovered that 4% is still shrapnel

More than 80 years have passed from “Day D” And yet his memory is still very present on the beaches of Normandy. And not in an ethereal and symbolic way. No. Beyond memory, the landing of allied troops in the French region in June 1944 maintains a palpable footprint in its sand. One that can be touched and seen, although for the latter an electronic microscope is needed. This was checked by a group of geologists who collected a sand sample on the beach of Omaha.

When taking her to her laboratory and studying it in detail, they bought, amazed, that 4% were actually remains of shrapnel. A microscopic memory of a historical date.

Normandy walk. That is what they did a good day of 1988, the Geology professor Earle McBridefrom the University of Texas in Austin, and its colleague Dane Picard, of the University of Utah. While doing a field study in France decided to take a break and visit the famous Omaha beachone of the main landing points of the day D in Normandy.

They did not have much luck with their Norman trip. The day they walked through the sand, around eight kilometers long, it was disappeared, cold and windy; But that did not prevent McBride and Picard to take home a memory that honored his formation: a small sand sample. Some time later they decided to rescue the bag with those grains of Normandy and observe them under the microscope.

And the surprise came. What McBride found in that sample of sand collected in Omaha Beach caught his attention. In addition to quartz remains and other materials that it already gave, the geologist observed tiny Metal fragments. When studying them in detail with the microscope he found that they had a rounded shape, they were rough, laminated and an opaque brightness, with some oxide points. Some pieces were around the millimeter. Others did not go from 0.06 mm.

The remains of the battle. Thus, reduced to millimetric metal accounts eroded by waves and the passage of time, perhaps they were difficult to identify, but McBride ended up reaching a fascinating conclusion. What I had before them were vestiges of Normandy landing. “They turned out to be a shrapnel of the invasion of World War II. After a more detained exam, he also saw iron and glass accounts that had resulted from the intense heat unleashed by the explosions in the air and the sand,” They detail From the University of Texas in Austin.

So curious was his finding that, together with PicardProfessor McBride decided to prepare An article and publish it in the magazine The sedimentary record.

Foreseeable. “Of course it is not surprising that the sand of the beach of Omaha be added at the time of battle, but it is that it has survived more than 40 years and without a doubt it is still there today,” They commented Both experts. His sample was from the end of the 80s and The report They published it in 2011; But everything indicates that the situation remains the same today. In 2011 experts They calculated that corrosion would still take a century to destroy shrapnel grains.

A well mesurable footprint. If McBride and Picard’s study is surprising, it is because it has done more than verifying that – discussion after day D – through the Normandy beaches, remains of shrapnel are still distributed. So or more curious is that experts have managed to contribute a fairly precise idea what this footprint represents in the sand. After examining the exhibition in detail, the Texas geologist found that metals represent 4% of the sand.

The data is illustrative, although McBride and Picard slide that there could be variations depending on where and when the sand is collected. “Due to the possible plasticization of shrapnel and heavy minerals by the waves and currents the day we collected our sample, we do not know to what extent it is representative of the sand of the beach as a whole.” The Omaha was one of the great landing points of day D, but there were other beaches in Normandy to which the allies arrived in the Neptune operationknown as Utah, Sword, Gold and Juno.

Date of expiration. Although the accounts discovered by American geologists are a peculiar memory of the day and have survived decades, McBride and Picard have already noticed years ago that they will not last forever. The remains of shrapnel could resist erosion for millennity, but when the grains study the geologists discovered oxide particles, which leads them to be pessimistic about their future. “The waves stir the iron fragments, which in turn eliminates part of the oxide and exposes fresh material, more prone to oxidation, which in turn follows, and so on,” Point out The University of Texas.

“The result is that they will become smaller and in the end the storms or hurries will drag them and take out of the beach,” McBride reflected in 2011. His calculations pointed out that 4% of shrapnel identified in Omaha Beach would be reduced to insignificance in a century. They will remain to remember the allied landing, yes, monuments and memory.

Image | Person-With-No Name (Flickr)

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*An earlier version of this article was published in June 2024