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When clean and dry, sand and even most rocks have no smell. Why does something that has been created (over lots of years) from decaying matter and dirt smell so clean?
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Rocks and sand are compressed solid units either rocks or grains of sand. They are not emitting any particles so they can’t be smelled. The sand could get into your nose, but each grain won’t have a smell because it is not giving off anything to smell.
The nose works by detecting very tiny particles, if an object isn’t emitting any particles then there will be no odder.
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In order for something to have a smell, it must release molecules of its substance into the air; i.e. it must have some volatility. The molecules of rock and sand are very tightly bound (as in many other solid materials), so they cannot escape. In addition, the escaped molecules must have some chemical activity to produce a reaction in the nose to activate the sense of smell; the silica molecules of sand and rock are very inactive.
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