Atlantic Coast Beaches

by Neal, William J.

• ISBN13: 9780878425341
• ISBN10: 0878425349
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-05-01
• Publisher: Mountain Pr

Summary

At first glance, the beach may appear to be an endless, flat, monotone landscape meant only for swimming, snoozing, or working on your tan. Upon closer inspection, though, the beach reveals that it has myriad treasures for the curious to locate, such as ephemeral beach ripples decorating the sand, traces of miniature organisms inscribed on dunes, and armored mudballs. Atlantic Coast beaches, from Maine to Florida, are full of amazing features formed by the interactions between tides, currents, bedrock, weather, beach critters, and much more. Written for a general audience, Atlantic Coast Beaches: A Guide to Ripples, Dunes, and Other Natural Features of the Seashore covers everything, from microscopic nematodes to the potentially cataclysmic changes occurring along the coastline due to rising sea level. Its clear writing, illustrative photographs, and instructive diagrams answer some curious questions, such as why do some sands bark and sing, how do miniature sand volcanoes form, and how do barrier islands migrate?

Table of Contents

Preface: A Seashell Bias	p. ix
Geology of the Atlantic Coast	p. 1
Different Kinds of Beaches	p. 1
The Geologic Setting	p. 6
The North-South Dichotomy	p. 8
Continental Glaciation	p. 10
Beach Movement	p. 16
Time and the Beach: The Short Life of Sand Castles	p. 17
Sea Level Rise: Time's Tide	p. 21
Barrier Islands: Hot Dogs, Drumsticks, and Broken Spits	p. 27
Beach Erosion and Accretion: Moving Beaches	p. 42
Oceans In Motion	p. 50
Perfect Storms: Hurricanes and Nor'easters	p. 50
Beach Battle Zone: Tides, Waves, and Currents	p. 57
The Tide	p. 57
Storm Surge	p. 59
Waves	p. 60
Currents	p. 63
Stories in a Grain of Sand	p. 67
As Measureless as Sand on the Seashore: What Sand Grains Tell Us	p. 67
Beach Sediment: Size, Shape, and Sorting	p. 68
Common Minerals of the Beach: A Mineral Collection in a Handful of Sand	p. 74
Mineral Stability	p. 75
Black Sands: Pollution or Provenance?	p. 80
Other Black Material	p. 86
Beach Shape	p. 90
The Shape of the Beach: Bars, Berms, and Troughs	p. 91
Beach Terminology	p. 92
Scarps and Cusps	p. 96
The Sea's Cutting Edge: Wrack and Ruin	p. 98
Shipwrecks: The Ultimate Wrack	p. 104
Wave, Wind, and Current Ripple Marks	p. 105
Can You Read a Beach?	p. 113
Sea Suds: Froth, Foam, and Phantom Marks	p. 113
To-and-Fro on the Beach: Swash, Backwash, and Wind Structures	p. 119
Diamond Patterns and Zebra Stripes	p. 122
Layers in a Ditch: What's Under the Beach?	p. 127
Pages of Time: Beach Layers	p. 127
Bioturbation	p. 130
Bubbly Beaches: Holes, Blisters, Pits, and Rings	p. 132
Make Your Own Structures	p. 140
Holes and Critters	p. 141
Knee-Deep in Sand: Soft Sand	p. 142
Leaky Beaches: Groundwater in the Beach	p. 145
Squeaky Beaches: Barking and Singing Sand	p. 150
Booming Sand	p. 152
Leave Only Your Footprints: Burrows, Tracks, and Trails	p. 152
Beach Critters: Little Ones and Big Ones	p. 154
Beach Traces	p. 155
Beach-Dune Transition	p. 160
The Solution to the Mystery	p. 162
Shells	p. 163
Recently Alive or Long Dead? Beach Fossils	p. 164
Other Fossils and Artifacts	p. 168
Staining and Rounding: More Than Meets the Eye	p. 169
Preferred Orientation: Hydrodynamics and Aerodynamics	p. 173
Dunes and Winter Beaches	p. 175
Dunes: Banked Sand	p. 175
Beaches and Dunes	p. 175
Vegetation and Dunes	p. 180
Active Dunes	p. 184
Plant Succession	p. 186
Dunes and Beaches	p. 189
Winter Beaches: Frozen Features of the North	p. 190
Saving Beaches or Killing Them?	p. 196
Concrete Beaches: The Suburbanized Shore	p. 197
Why Hard Stabilization is Bad for Beaches	p. 200
Sea Bright, New Jersey	p. 201
Obstructions on the Beach	p. 203
Artificial Beaches and Dunes: Virtual Reality?	p. 204
Artificial Dunes	p. 217
Beach Bulldozing and Sweeping	p. 219
How Beach Resorts Age: The Evolution of Beach Communities	p. 220
Epilogue	p. 225
The Future of Beaches: Are Beaches an Endangered Species?	p. 226
Fifteen Ways to Conserve a Beach for Future Generations	p. 228
Glossary	p. 231
References	p. 238
Index	p. 240
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.