Accession Number:

AD0744316

Title:

Offset Coastal Inlets. Forms of Sediment Accumulation in the Beach Zone.

Descriptive Note:

Technical repts.,

Corporate Author:

MASSACHUSETTS UNIV AMHERST COASTAL RESEARCH CENTER

Personal Author(s):

• Hayes,Miles O.
• Goldsmith,Victor
• Hobbs,Carl H. , III

Report Date:

1972-06-01

Pagination or Media Count:

80.0

Abstract:

Offset coastal inlets are common on the coasts of New England and the northern Gulf of Alaska. In both areas, the dominant waves approach the shore at an oblique angle, resulting in a strong net littoral drift. The most common type of offset on these coasts is a downdrift offset i.e., the downdrift side of the inlet protrudes further seaward than the updrift side. Wave refraction around the ebb-tidal deltas at the inlets is an important process in the formation of the downdrift offsets, inasmuch as it creates a local reversal in drift direction just downdrift of the inlet, and allows sediment to accumulate there. Forms of sediment accumulation in the beach zone include ridge-and-runnel systems, berms, a multiplicity of types of nearshore bars, cusp-type sand waves or rhythmic topography, complex sand bodies affiliated with ebb-tidal deltas, and an ordered system of minor features bedforms that correlate with flow-regime conditions. Most sand beaches undergo a simple cycle of erosion and deposition in response to the passage of coastal storms. Author

Descriptors:

• (*COASTAL REGIONS
• OCEAN WAVES)
• (*BEACHES
• SEDIMENTATION)
• REFRACTION
• TIDES
• DRIFT
• SAND
• TERRAIN
• DELTAS
• STORMS
• EROSION
• TRANSPORT PROPERTIES
• ALASKA GULF
• NEW HAMPSHIRE
• NORTH CAROLINA

Subject Categories:

• Physical and Dynamic Oceanography
• Civil Engineering

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE