Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Ancient Helmet Source See the phys.org link below. |
Archaeologists in southern Italy have discovered ancient warrior helmets and the ruins of a painted brick wall at a site that might have been a forerunner of a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, officials said Tuesday...
Here is the link for more about that.
Ancient helmets, temple ruins found at dig in southern Italy (phys.org)
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| Two-Step Erosion. |
What I call level two conditions, is what I consider transitional. Conditions aren't good, but they are improving. There might not be any beaches that are producing two-hundred-year-old items, but with a little more improvement, you might start to get into some interesting stuff. On some occasions, there might be just one spot or one beach that becomes productive.
Of course, level five conditions are the best and that happens rarely. It has been some years since that has happened. Mostly it happens when we have a hurricane or storm that lingers for a good while. I've described some of those types of situations in the past. The one I've talked most about was the Thanksgiving Storm of 1984. I talked about that one a lot because I found some good meterological data explaining exactly what happened. See The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 6/17/15 Report - Can A Storm Uncover As Much Treasure As A Hurricane? Question Answered.. for example.
In the past couple of years, we haven't had any level five conditions. When finds were made, they were made mostly at one or two spots while most of the beach remains unproductive. All of the renourishment projects were partly responsible for that. Some areas that might have opened up without the protection of all the renourishment sand, remained buried. Some beaches have been renourished so frequently, those areas and areas just to the south of those areas have been unproductive for years. John Brooks, for example, used to produce much more than it has in recent years.
When beach accesses are closed, you might have to use alternate accesses and walk a good distance to get to some of your favorite locations. Beach renourishment projects can actually produce finds when there are old items in the renourishment sand or when the new sand deflects wave energy to neighboring areas. If you can get there, you might want to check areas immediately to the south of where new sand has been dumped.
I started out to talk about the two-step erosion shown at the top of this post and got off track.
As you know the dunes can be a source for old items. When the dunes erode, old items can get washed out and onto the beach. That can happen at areas like where the old salvage camp was located near Turtle Trail. In recent year some of the good finds were made when the erosion was sufficient to cut into the dunes or i In the photo at the top of the post, you can see where erosion has almost reached a dune face, but not quite.
We've been having some minor fronts come through and causing just a little erosion in a few spots, and then as the front passes the wind and surf quickly changes. That results in just a little erosion followed by filling. You'll get wind from one direction that will erode an area a little, and then the wind will shift and quickly fill it up again, so there is little net effect.
The erosion shown at the top of the page has moved back towards the dunes about four times in recent weeks. When the tides were small, the cut was down towards the bottom of the slope. The cut moved back as additional fronts came through, and as the high tides increased, the cut moved farther back towards the dunes. The older sand can be seen about a foot or so under the old renourishment sand. The neighboring beaches are not productive at all, but his one beach is not far from producing something good if we could only get some higher surf combined with higher tides.
There might be other beaches out there that are just as good, but I haven't had the time to explore a lot lately. Right now, with the weather and tides we've been having and all of the beaches that have been renourished, it can take some time to scout around to find the few aeras that are a little more promising. If you don't want to drive or spend the time scouting around, you might decide to spend your time in other ways, for example on modern losses, until some of your local treasure beaches open up again.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
So it looks like we'll have some more four-to-six-foot surf.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net