The Gulf sits beside the largest sand sea on Earth, but wind-polished dune sand makes weak concrete, so the UAE still imports millions of tonnes of sand.

• ✓NASA Earth Observatory, Empty Quarter, Arabian Peninsula (image 77714)
• ✓UN Comtrade: UAE imports, HS 2505, 2022 (3,937,371,864 kg)
• ✓UNEP 2019, Sand and Sustainability (GRID-Geneva)
• ✓Luo et al. 2013, Construction and Building Materials 47:131-137, doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2013.05.005
• ✓ASTM C33
• ✓Nakheel press release, 2024-01-23, Palm Jumeirah beach enhancement

This is the largest sand sea on Earth. Bigger than France. Yet the United Arab Emirates, on its edge, imported almost four million tonnes of sand in 2022. Blame the wind. Over thousands of years, it bounces grains across the dunes until they're mostly fine, polished and the same size. Concrete needs a mix of sizes, so small grains fill the gaps between big ones. In tests, the tiniest dune grains soak up the water and trap air. The concrete comes out weaker. So builders crush rock into sand, or dredge it from the seabed. Sand and gravel are the most-mined solid material on Earth. The world isn't short of sand. It's short of sand the wind hasn't touched.