How to solidify sand I'm doing a research project where we analyzing the structure of sand after a certain process. To get a better idea of the internal structure of the sand, we use different colors to visualize the movement of the particles. However we can't actually observe that structure since sand is not a solid substance. Therefore we need a way to solidify the sand without changing the structure.

We figured we would need some sort of liquid which we can pour into the sand container (the container is 2x1x0.2 meters) so that it will solidify. In other words, how can we solidify sand?

Using a transparent container is not really an option since we are curious about the structure in the center which we cannot see... unless we use transparent sand ;)

Note: we are using 'regular' beach sand.

EDIT:
I have read through all the answers and they are great! I can't accept any answers just yet since we need to figure out which method we will use, but it looks promising! We started with 0 and now we have some great ideas going with your help!
Based on your comments, it sounds like you have some sort of colored sand and you want to immobilize it. My suggestion would be some sort of polymer matrix.

There are multiple possibilities, but one of the easiest is polydimethylsiloxane PDMS which is optically clear and pretty easy to work with (i.e., safe). There's the "base" and a curing agent which creates cross linking.

Probably the easiest how-to comes from U. Wisconsin.

If done right (i.e., no air bubbles) you should be able to pour in the PDMS, cure, and have a polymerized matrix around the sand. Then you could cut it up or do whatever needed to see different regions.