ELSEVIER Marine Geology 136 (1996) 121-125

Discussion

Origin of beach ridges: Comment on Tanner, WI?, 1995. Origin of

beach ridges and swales. Mar. Geol., 129: 149-161.
Joseph R. Curray’
Scripps Institution of OceanographJj, Lu Jolla, CA 92093-0215, USA
Received 1 March 1996; accepted 3 May 1996

Abstract

Tanner (1995) has proposed that most common strand plain sandy beach ridges (his swash-built type) have been
formed by a sea level rise-and-fall couplet of 5-30 cm, with a periodicity which is most commonly 30-60 years, but
which ranges from as little as 3 to as much as 60 years. While such a mechanism could perhaps apply to beach ridges
in lakes, if sea level has fluctuated with such regularity for the past several thousand years, all open ocean beach ridge
periodicities should be the same, and furthermore this sea level signal would surely have been detected by physical
oceanographers.
Curray et al. (1969) described a strand plain of several hundred beach ridges on the western Mexican coast with
cyclic formation of ridges varying from 12.2 to 16.5 years. The mechanism of formation invoked was periodic building
of offshore bars to above sea level after sufficient sand had been transported into the area and during an optimal
combination of oceanographic conditions.

1. Introduction 1 m/yr. A few ridge sets, however, have intervals

Tanner (1995) recently published the synthesis
paper of a symposium on beach ridges, in which he
identifies four types of ridges: ( 1) swash-built, (2)
settling lag, (3) eolian, and (4) storm surge. He
concludes that most sandy beach ridges are of the
swash-built type, and he rejects the commonly-held
misconception that the ridges in strand plains can
be constructed by individual storms. In his studies
of more than a thousand ridges in about 50 different
systems throughout the world, he finds that period-
icity of these ridges is typically 30-60 years, with
spacing of 25-50 m, with coastal accretion of about
‘Fax 619-534-0784, jcurray@ucsd.edu.
of 3-7, lo-12 or 18-19 years, with smaller spacing,
perhaps correlating with El Nifio cycles, sunspot
activity, and a tidal node. He concludes that “each
swash-type sandy beach ridge was made by a sea-
level rise-and-fall couplet (amplitude, 5-30 cm).”
(Tanner, 1995, p. 149).
My colleagues, Emmel and Crampton, and I
studied a strand plain up to 15 km wide on the
Nayarit west coast of Mexico south of the Gulf of
California (Fig. I), with about 280 sub parallel
sand beach ridges (Curray et al., 1969). We did
air photo studies, surveyed, trenched, drilled holes
to about 10 m depth, sampled, and did radiocarbon
dating on peat and shell samples.
I wish to correct two points in Professor

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122 J.R. CurraylMarine Geology 136 (1996) 121-125
 J. R. &-ray/Marine
Tanner’s paper (Tanner, 1995, pp. 153, 156, 158,
and 159): ( 1) that we had found a periodicity of
these ridges of about 18-19 years, which matches
a lunar nodal tide cycle of 18.6 years, and (2) that
the Nayarit coast is in an active tectonic zone with
a history of episodic uplift. I will then comment
briefly on Tanner’s explanation of beach ridge
formation by a sea-level rise-and-fall mechanism
and on the alternative mechanism which we had
proposed.
2. Nayarit beach ridges
The state of Nayarit lies on the west coast of
Mexico south of the Gulf of California. The mouth
and axis of the Gulf are tectonically active, and
are the locus of sea floor spreading between the
Pacific and North American plates, transforming
to the north into the San Andreas fault system.
The coastal plain and continental shelf of Nayarit
are wide and apparently quite stable. The shelf
edge averages about 125 m, about the world-wide
average, and shallow water shells from the shelf
edge deposits are dated at about 17,000-19,000 yr
B.P. (Curray and Moore, 1964), typical dates for
the low stand of sea level of the late Quaternary.
Dates on the coastal plain (Fig. 1) demonstrate
relative stability of sea level since about 4500 yr
B.P. (Curray et al., 1969), suggesting, if anything
further, slow continuing rise of sea level and/or
slow regional subsidence.
In studying the coastal plain of Nayarit, we
divided the beach ridges into five sequences, four
of which are Holocene (Fig. 1, Table 1). The ages
of each Holocene sequence were constrained by
radiocarbon dates; we counted the ridges in each;
and from our drilling data we calculated the
volume of sand in each sequence between two
latitudes. This enabled us to make the calculations
shown here in Table 1, (from table 3 in Curray
et al., 1969). The mean years per ridge are calcu-
lated at 12.2, 16.5 and 12.5 years, respectively for
ridge sequences II, III and IV, from 4500 to 500
yr B.P. Tanner (1995) mistakenly attributed an
18-19 year periodicity of beach ridge formation
to our paper, which could correlate with a lunar
nodal tide cycle of 18.6 years.
Geology 136 (I 996) 121-125 123
The mechanism we proposed for formation of
the Nayarit beach ridges is similar to the mecha-
nism proposed for the origin of barrier islands by
De Beaumont (1845), although we commented
(Curray et al., 1969, p. 99) that we were attempting
to explain only individual beach ridges, not whole
barriers. By this mechanism, an offshore bar is
built to sea level when sufficient sand has been
supplied to that segment of coastline by either
longshore transport or is derived from offshore by
erosion of relict lowered sea level sandy deposits.
The time for this to occur is the “filling time” for
that sector of the coastline for each incipient
beach ridge.
After sufficient sand is available, the bar can
become emergent during a period with low surf
action and high spring tides. With the subsequent
rise and fall of the tide, if surf conditions continue
to be low, the bar can be built higher. Then unless
it is destroyed by more intense surf, it becomes a
new beach ridge, thereby isolating the former
beach behind a new narrow lagoon. This mecha-
nism was demonstrated in laboratory wave tank
experiments by McKee and Sterrett ( 1961).
This mechanism requires no sea level fluctua-
tions. It depends instead on normal variations of
oceanographic conditions and the rate of supply
of sand. The periodicity, or “filling time”, is a
function of the rate of supply of sand and the
volume of sand required for each beach ridge.
Table 1 suggests that the rate of influx of sand
per year has decreased with time. This might be
expected both by the fact that the coastline had
prograded into deeper water and that the relict
sandy sediments on the inner shelf had become
more and more blanketed with deltaic and conti-
nental shelf muds through the past several thou-
sand years. We suggested in our original paper
(Curray et al., 1969) that the source of the sand
during Period II was approximately half from
offshore, and half from longshore transport, while
most of the source during Period IV was from
longshore. Table 1 also suggests that during period
III, which is interpreted as having been a cooler
more stormy period, more time was required for
the formation of each ridge because the incipient
new ridges were vulnerable to and were more
frequently destroyed by the stormy conditions.
124 J.R CurrayjMarine Geology 136 (1996) 121-125

Table 1
Nayarit beach ridges

Sequence II III IV V
Time (yr B.P.) 4500-3600 3600-l 500 1500-500 500-O

Tie interval (yr) 900 2100 1000 500

Maximum width of sequence (km) 4.25 6.3 3.25 0.5
Number of ridges at widest part of sequence 14 127 80 _
Mean width of ridges at widest part of sequence (m) 51 50 40 _
Mean years per ridge 12.2 16.5 12.5 _
Rate of coastal progradation (m/yr) 4.7 3.0 3.3 1.0
Volume of regressive sand ( lo6 m3) 1600 1820 730 _
Volume of sand per year ( lo3 m3/yr) 1770 870 730
Volume of sand per ridge ( lo3 m3) 21.6 14.3 9.1 _
Relative climate warm cool and stormy? warm warm
Direction of longshore transport at Teacapan (22”30’ N) N S N N

All measurements and estimates are made between Rio San Pedro (21”5O’N) and Teacapan (22”3O’N). Sequence V is not included
in the estimates of volume and number of ridges because of the amount of coastal erosion which is postulated to have occurred here
during this period. Table modified from Curray et al. (1969, table 3).

The obvious questions regarding this proposed
mechanism are whether the process is continuing
today, and at what rate? The answer is, no, the
process has apparently not continued for the coast-
line north of the mouth of the Rio San Pedro, at
about 21”45’ N (Fig. 1) for about the last 500
years. Prior to about 500 yr B.P., the Rio grande
de Santiago and the Rio San Pedro were confluent
and entered the ocean at about 2lYO N (Fig. 1).
After the Rio Grande de Santiago shifted its flood
plain to discharge at about 21”40’ N (sequence
V,, Fig. l), some of the deltaic mouth of sequence
IV at about 21”50’ N was eroded, the eroded
sediments were transported southward, and the
entire northern part of the coastline became
starved for sediment supply.
New beach ridges have apparently been forming
during this past 500 years near the new mouth of
the Rio Grande, and southward transport of sand
has modified the coastline in the vicinity of San
Blas (21”32’ N). San Blas evolved into a closed
embayment during period V,, sometime early in
the past 500 year period, and became a major sea
port for the Spanish shipping trade in 1768.
Continued coastal progradation, however, has ren-
dered it suitable today only for smaller boats. At
the time of our studies leading to that paper, air
photo coverage in that region was inadequate to
determine how much or at what rates coastal
progradation and new beach ridge accretion is
occurring near the present mouth of the Rio
Grande de Santiago, the last remaining major
source of sand. Damming of this river system
farther inland has further reduced its input of sand
to the coastal system, Some of these coastal
changes are discussed more fully in Cm-ray et al.
(1969).
3. Discussion
My colleagues and I had the opportunity to
study only this one strand plain of beach ridges in
detail, and we did not propose that the mechanism
we invoked nor the rates we calculated necessarily
applied anywhere else in the world. I now suggest
that the mechanism may be more generally applica-
ble, and that periodicity will vary with local
conditions.
I have reservations regarding the hypothesis
proposed by Professor Tanner (Tanner, 1995, and
in his many previous papers cited) which requires
a sea level rise and fall couplet of about 5-30 cm
amplitude for the formation of each ridge. Perhaps
some such periodic fluctuation of lake levels is
possible; but if such a periodic fluctuation in sea
level has occurred, we would expect the cyclic
formation of beach ridges throughout the world
 J. R. Curray/Marine Geology 136 (1996) 121-125
to be the same, and we would expect that physical
oceanographers would have detected this sea level
signal in the centuries of sea level records.
References
Curray, J.R., Emmel, F.J. and Crampton, P.J.S., 1969. Holo-
cene history of a strand plain, lagoonal coast, Nayarit,
Mexico. In: A. Ayala-Casteiiares and F.B. Phleger (Editors),
Lagunas Costeras, UN Symp. UNAM-UNESCO, Mexico,
D.F., pp. 63-100.
125
Curray, J.R. and Moore, D.G., 1964. Pleistocene deltaic progra-
dation of continental terrace, Costa de Nayarit. Mexico. In:
T.H. van Andel and G.G. Shor Jr. (Editors), Marine Geol-
ogy of the Gulf of California-A Symposium. AAPG Mem.,
3: 1933215.
De Beaumont, E., 1845. Lecons de Geologic Practique. Paris,
551 pp.
McKee, E.D. and Sterrett, T.S., 1961. Laboratory experiments
on form and structure of longshore bars and beaches. In:
J.A. Peterson and J.C. Osmond (Editors), Geometry of
Sandstone Bodies. AAPG, Tulsa, OK, pp. 13-28.
Tanner, W.F., 1995. Origin of beach ridges and swales. Mar.
Geol., 129: 149-161.