Have you ever admired a beach in terms of its anatomy? Ah, you won't even think a beach is some sort of creature with body parts. We can't be too technical about it, you say. For isn't a beach to be admired simply for its beauty and pleasure-giving capacity without even loosely thinking of its face or butt? Well, here's something to pick your brain.
Beach experts say there are many parts to a beach. But before I go on to that, let me just first try to explain in simple terms what to them is a beach. A beach according to geologists is a landform along the shoreline of a body of water consisting of deposited materials such as sand, gravel, pebbles, shell fragments or other loose sediments, caused by or set in motion by wave action.
Having said that, the parts of a beach pretty much have to do with the processes that form and shape it. The part mostly above water and actively influenced by the normal rising and ebbing of the tide is called the beach derm. The top part of the derm is called the crest while the slope leading towards the water is called the face. At the bottom of the face is the trough and further seaward is the longshore bar.
Now here's the interesting part. Sometimes the beach may extend up the beach derm if the sand deposits are pushed further inland and lie beyond the influence of normal waves by very large storm waves - thus, this part is called the storm beach. And the most wonderful part - there is a point where the influence of the waves on the materials comprising the beach no longer exists but the sand deposit and particle materials may well extend further inland by wind movement. Where the wind is the force distributing the grains of sand, the deposit behind the beach becomes a dune.
Lovely isn't it? There's beauty in the force of nature and wonder in the anatomy of a beach. Next time you go down to the beach, be happy, be beach savvy!
Beach experts say there are many parts to a beach. But before I go on to that, let me just first try to explain in simple terms what to them is a beach. A beach according to geologists is a landform along the shoreline of a body of water consisting of deposited materials such as sand, gravel, pebbles, shell fragments or other loose sediments, caused by or set in motion by wave action.
Having said that, the parts of a beach pretty much have to do with the processes that form and shape it. The part mostly above water and actively influenced by the normal rising and ebbing of the tide is called the beach derm. The top part of the derm is called the crest while the slope leading towards the water is called the face. At the bottom of the face is the trough and further seaward is the longshore bar.
Now here's the interesting part. Sometimes the beach may extend up the beach derm if the sand deposits are pushed further inland and lie beyond the influence of normal waves by very large storm waves - thus, this part is called the storm beach. And the most wonderful part - there is a point where the influence of the waves on the materials comprising the beach no longer exists but the sand deposit and particle materials may well extend further inland by wind movement. Where the wind is the force distributing the grains of sand, the deposit behind the beach becomes a dune.
Lovely isn't it? There's beauty in the force of nature and wonder in the anatomy of a beach. Next time you go down to the beach, be happy, be beach savvy!
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