English: Oldest to youngest The famous Alum Bay, with its coloured sands. Geologically, all these sands are rocks laid down in succession on top of the chalk, from about 60-30 million years ago. Each is a different marine deposit coloured by different minerals that they happened to encounter at the time. About 10 million years ago, during the continental drift that made the Alps and the Himalaya, the strata were folded and pushed vertically. Underneath the sea floor they turn horizontally again, under the Solent, and surfacing in various places in England. The sands were commercially collected during Victorian times for use in china and glass making. These days, access to the beach is limited, but there is a cable car down from the Needles Park (aka overpriced tacky grockel rip off place) to the jetty from where one can take a boat to see the Needles at close quarters. In the background of this picture the Round the Island yacht race is taking place.