Besides the crystal clear water and white sand, the Petra Island of the Petra Islands marine park in the southern-most province of Satun boasts a unique colourful stone beach filled with pebbles of diverse colours – hence its fitting name the “Five Coloured” stone beach.
The colourful stone beach covers just a small stripe of the beaches of the Petra island. It is located near the Khao Toh Ngai checkpoint. The colourful pebbles are usually submerged, but they come into full view to wow most visitors especially during the low tide.
Most of the pebbles on the beach are of five colours:
Red pebbles which are believed to date back to about 500 million years ago of the Cambrian Period. The red colour came from iron-oxide in the pebbles.
The grey or blue pebbles came from limestone formation of the Ertovixien Period which was said to be about 470 million years ago and the colour stemmed from alien matters in the pebbles.
The yellow or brown pebbles are eroded sandstone whereas the white pebbles which are quite common in most beaches are mainly quartz.
The “Five Coloured” stone beach is a part of the Satun Geopark, the first of its kind in Thailand which was endorsed by Unesco in April this year. The geopark covers four districts of Thung Wa, Manang, La-Ngu and Muang.
As with all Unesco global geoparks, the Satun Geopark has been granted the Unesco status for a 4-year period from this year until 2021 after which a re-validation process will take place.
Satun Geopark boasts a diverse abundance of fossils from the Paleozoic Era as well as diversified Karst topography. There is also evidence of submerged
landscape dating back more than 500 million years, a time when early organisms thrived. It is also home to Thailand’s largest cave, Phu Pha cave.
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