Beach

The shape of a beach depends on whether the waves are constructive or destructive, and whether the material is sand or shingle. Constructive waves move material up the beach while destructive waves move the material down the beach. On sandy beaches, the backwash of the waves removes material forming a gently sloping beach. On shingle beaches the swash is dissipated because the large particle size allows percolation, so the backwash is not very powerful, and the beach remains steep. Cusps and horns form where incoming waves divide, depositing sand as horns and scouring out sand to form cusps. This forms the uneven edge of a sandy beach. This photograph was taken on the south coast of England.
© 2004 onwards by Dr Himanshu Tyagi. All the photographs in this blog are copyright protected and can not be reproduced or stored in any medium without the written permission from Dr Himanshu Tyagi..