Oceanography

Homework Ch 11 Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences. Most of the information will be available in your textbook chapter. Occasionally a question will require searching on the internet or doing some simple calculations. When calculations are required, you must show your work. Type your answers as a word document, then save and upload your answer document in the assignment link before the deadline.

1) Compare the mode of origin and the flow characteristics of long shore and rip currents. Longshore drift is transportation of sediments along a coast at an angle to the shoreline. This is caused by wave, tidal changes, and wind. Rip currents are strong channels of flowing water that flow seaward from the shore through the surf line. These are caused when wind push water toward shore and then is forced sideways by oncoming waves. This water streams along the coast til it finds an exit which forms a rip current usually between sandbars or along jetties.

2) What is a sand budget and how is it useful for studying beaches over time? Sand budget are estimates of the principal sand sources and sand losses for a stretch of shoreline. That is that the inputs plus the outputs need to equal a balance shown in fig 11-4. From sand budgets you can calculate time and amount of sand moved.

3) How are barrier islands formed? They are formed by waves carrying sediment layering up to where it exposes sediments. Over time this builds up and eventually becomes large enough to form an island which takes thousands of years.

4) Why are groins and jetties rarely beneficial to the coastal system they are designed to protect? Be specific in your analysis. Groins and jetties are structures that impose a physical barrier in the near shore zone and block the flow of littoral drift. This interrupts the natural equilibrium and therefore destroys the

natural way things are created of destroyed in the system. Supply of materials to down drift beaches will then be reduced and as a consequence downstream erosion will be accelerated.

5) Assume that a beach system receives 13,500 m3 of sand annually from cliff erosion and 8,200 m3 of sand annually from river input, and that it loses each year 18,500 m3 of sand to long shore and offshore transport. Is this beach eroding, accreting, or in a steady state condition? What will happen to this beach if a sea wall is built against the cliff to reduce erosion of the cliff face? Receives +13,500 m3 + 8,200 m3. Loses -18,500 m3= +3,200 m3. This means it is accreting rather than a negative number which would suggest eroding. If a wall was build to reduce erosion from the cliff then the eroding input would be taken from the equation leaving us with +13,500 m3-18,500 m3= 5,000 m3 which suggests the beach is eroding rather than accreting.