coastal geology: part i forces affecting shoreline development nick warner
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Coastal Geology: Part I
Forces Affecting Shoreline Development
Nick Warner
Objective To analyze the dynamic nature of
shorelines….
Relating to the forces modify our shorelines
How do shoreline processes affect us?
How do we affect shoreline processes?
Introduction
Coastal areas vary greatly in character. Most are dynamic (constantly changing). They change due to erosional forces. Erosional forces? water and wind They change due to tidal forces. They change due to tectonic forces. Tectonic forces? uplift and subsidence
Forces that Shape our Coastline: Erosional Forces
Erosional forces
What is the main agent of erosion at a coastline?
Water, specifically wave movement.
What causes a wave to form?
Wind
Waves Waves you see are just the surface
expression of actual wave motion.
The Waveform
a. b.
Wave Terminology
Wave Crest: Top of the wave
Wave Trough: Low part between two crests
Wavelength: Horizontal distance from top of one crest to the top of another crest
Wave Height (amplitude): Vertical distance from trough to crest
Waves Continued
How do breaker waves form?
Do you ever see a breaker far offshore?
Breakers form when waves approach the shore.
Why?
Breaker Waves
Friction between wave bottom and seafloor causes the top of the wave to topple over.
Shoreline erosion and sediment movement
Moving water (waves) is the primary agent of shoreline erosion and sediment movement.
Energy from the waves picks sediment up from one area and deposits it in another area along a shoreline.
When waves break at the coast they move sediment along the beach front.
Beach Profile
Swash and Backwash
This process creates a gentle beach profile
Beach Erosion
Beach erosion cuts into vegetated area
Vegetation reduces rate of beach erosion
Shoreline Erosion Points or
protrusions along a coast are particularly susceptible to erosion.
Wave Refraction: Bending of waves as they interact with the coastline
Wave Refraction
Longshore Currents Do waves always hit perpendicular
to the shore?
Waves often approach the shore at oblique angles.
Longshore Currents Swash and backwash
moves sediment along the shore.
Littoral Drift: The movement of sediment along the shore, parallel to the shoreface.
Longshore Current: Current of water parallel to the beach front. Created when waves hit the shore at an oblique angle
Shoreline Features Created by Sediment Movement
Spit: Continuation of a beach created by movement of sand parallel to the shore.
Spit
Shoreline Features
Spit
Cape Cod, Mass.
Shoreline Features
Baymouth Bar: Thin beach that blocks the entrance to a bay.
Shoreline Features Barrier Island: long, narrow, offshore
deposits of sand or sediments that parallel the coast line. Some barrier islands can extend for 100 miles (160 km) or more.
Example: The Outer Banks: NC
Barrier Island Profile
Shoreline Features How do barrier islands form?
Current Theory: Barrier islands formed right after the last ice age. (~18000 ya)
As glaciers melted ocean levels rose submerging the regions behind the higher beach front.
Today, rivers that carry sediment to the ocean have built up the barrier islands.
Affect of Humans on Shorelines
Why do we care about the processes that shape the coast?
The coast is dynamic, houses and hotels and human structures are for the most part static.
How do we attempt to control the coast?
Man-Made Coastal Structures
Man-Made Structures
Shoreline reinforcement (Jersey Shore)
Man-Made Structures
Jetty
Man-Made Structures
Sand Fences
Next Time: Other Forces?? Tidal Forces & Tectonic
High Tide and Low Tide
Passive Continental Margins (Atlantic Coast)
Active Continental Margins (Pacific Coast)
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