Abstract
Purposes of the present study are to obtain quantitatively color characteristics of sands which were collected in 41 beaches in Niigata Pref., Japan and to examine relationships between the color characteristics and geological features of river drainage areas which are adjacent to the beaches or of area within 5km distance from the beaches. The geological features drastically changes because of some tectonic lines, the Fossa Magna and so on and accordingly beach sands have a variety of colors. Some relationships between sand colors and geological features are clarified, such as that the beaches in the east side of Agano River have bright color sands owing to felsic plutonic rocks of the late Cretaceous and that those in the Fossa Magna area have dark color sands under the influence of non-alkaline mafic volcanic rocks and sedimentary rocks in the Niigata Oil Field.
