Shorelines

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Shorelines

• Wave properties
• Wave erosion
• Shoreline features
• Human interventions
• Tides

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Wave Properties
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Wave Properties
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Longshore Transport
Transport of sand along the shoreline
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Wave Erosion
Waves preferentially erode prominent points
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Wave Cut Platform
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Erosional Shorelines
Wave refraction erodes headlands
Common at active continental margins (West
Coast, glaciated areas also)
Occur as land is uplifted or sea level drops
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Erosional Shorelines
Headlands eroded into sea cliffs, stacks,
arches, wave-cut platforms, etc.
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Depositional Shorelines
Spits, hooks, baymouth bars, barrier islands
Drowned rivers (estuaries)
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Beaches are Dynamic
In between
Before and after
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Dont buy a House on a Sea Cliff
Sea cliffs can be cut back 0.5 meters/year
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Your Taxpayer Dollars at Work
These are all temporary solutions that create
other problems They typically increase erosion
elsewhere or muck with the environment
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Other Shoreline Protections
Most attempts to stop nature are expensive and
ultimately futile
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What is the Solution?

• Move somewhere else