GEOMETRY AND DEVELOPMENT OF SPIT-BAR SHORELINES AT HORSESHOE COVE, SANDY HOOK, NEW JERSEY.

Shoreline morphogenesis at Horseshoe Cove was investigated by plane-table mapping in 1959-60, detailed transverse profiling in 1960-62, and detailed longitudinal surveying in 1960-61. Two spit-bar types are distinguished by transverse form and crest elevation an upper-foreshore spit-bar, having its crest near the limit of swash at high tide and a sigmoidal curvature of seaward face as seen in transverse profile a lower-foreshore spit-bar, having its crest below mean-high-water, an up-convex seaward face as seen in transverse profile, and a steep landward face representing a depositional slope of repose between landward bar edge and adjacent trough. At Horseshoe Cove a steep depositional slope in the offshore zone, immediately seaward of lower-foreshore spit-bars, terminates in deep water at a horizontal interface between water and organic-mud bottom. A tidal lagoon lies landward of the upper-foreshore spit-bar.