Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Turtle Trail Early Afternoon Saturday. |
I looked at John Brooks and Frederick Douglass Friday, and Saturday I looked at Turtle Trail. As you can see, there were not significant cuts at this location Saturday afternoon. There were some shallow dips or scallops running along the beach.
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| Turtle Trail Saturday Afternoon. |
The beach looked the same for a long distance north and south, and was generally mushy except in the middle of the dips.
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| Turtle Trail Early Saturday Afternoon. |
Despite the building beaches, there was more of the old orange sand showing on the dune cliffs and some of the vegetation was falling. You can see that kind of thing below.
So far, the recent higher surf hasn't helped the beaches that I've seen the past two days.
There were a series of what I might call scallops or cusps on the beach. There were these shallow dips separated by high spots. I'll try to highlight two of those in the following photo.
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| Two Shallow Dips Highlighted. |
You can see two dips highlighted above. Here is how they were forming.
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| How Scallops Form on a Beach. |
In my illustration is one dip. The two arrows show incoming water. As the water comes in, it encounters the higher sand, curves around from both sides and exits back into the ocean in the middle of the dip (single arrow). The combined water exiting in the middle of the dip gains force and carries sand away. The water at the higher edges of the dip slows and drops sand around the outside edges of the dip, so the center of the dip deepens while the edges build. Yesterday as you walked across these scallops, you would notice that the sand between dips was very mushy, while the sand in the middle and seaward part of the dip was firm. You could also see that there was courser sand in the middle of the dip. There was a large was a good amount of time between waves reaching high up, which allowed the water to be forced to the middle of the dip where it gathered force as it returned to the ocean. If the waves came more quickly, the outflow would be interrupted by incoming waves.
When the dips, or cusps, are big enough, coins and things can be deposited where the water slows just enough. In some cases that will be around the edges of the dip.
This kind of feature forms very much like a rip current, except it is higher on the beach and relatively dry between flows.
Watch it for yourself next time you see cusps like this forming on the beach.
That is another example of how things are deposited on a beach. It all depends upon the changing flow or force of water and the relative density and shape of the materials or objects. It is exactly the same forces that determine erosion.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
So we'll have a few more days of moderately rough surf. The direction will change late in the week, which give some hope for improvement in some areas.
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I watched some Duck Family Treasure on TV last night. It is light and entertaining.
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There is no evidence of wrong doing. That is the prideful announcement of crooks that thinks they got away with it.
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Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net