Tuesday is Dunkin' Donuts Day at the beach. Imagine our surprise when we pulled into the parking spot and saw these piles of sand. They are taking sand from the south end of the beach, and moving it up here to the north end of the beach. Along a beach shoreline there is always a process going on that is called "Littoral drift." "Littoral drift from longshore current is a geological process that consists of the transportation of sediments like sand along a coast parallel to the shoreline, which is dependent on the angle of incoming wave direction. Beach sand can move downbeach in a sawtooth fashion many tens of meters per day. Oblique incoming wind squeezes water along the coast, and so generates a water current which moves parallel to the coast." - from Wikipedia. So each spring they take some sand from the south end and move it north. We have just never seen it before. How it changes the landscape!
3 comments:
This is such a cool photo of uniform mountains of sand.
Joan
Joan: Thank you! I was amazed when I saw this and thought it made such an interesting photograph!
Love this photo of the sawtooth mounds of sand at the beach. Very cool! Betsey
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