Divergent response of an intertidal swash bar

This paper examines the processes responsible for the morphodynamics of an intertidal swash bar at Skallingen, Denmark, during seven successive storms (one with a large surge of +3·02 m DNN). During this period a subtidal bar migrated landward onto the foreshore and continued to migrate across the intertidal zone as a swash bar. The onshore migration of the inner subtidal bar resulted from the erosion of sediment from the upper foreshore and dune ramp during the large storm surge that was transported seaward, causing the landward displacement of the bar through accretion on the landward slope. The magnitude and direction of suspended sediment transport within the intertidal zone, and more specifically at and close to the crest of the swash bar, varied with the ratio of both the significant (H_s) and average (H_avg) wave heights to the water depth (h_cr) at the swash bar crest (the local depth minimum). The transition between onshore and offshore suspended sediment transport was associated with the average wave of the incident distribution breaking on the swash bar crest (H_avgh ≈ 0·33). While the onshore‐directed transport was largest at infragravity frequencies, sediment resuspension was best explained by the skewed accelerations under the surf bores. Offshore transport was dominated by the cross‐shore mean currents (undertow) that developed when the significant wave of the distribution broke on the swash bar crest (H_sh ≈ 0·33) and weakened as the average wave of the distribution started to break at the crest (H_avgh ≈ 0·33) and the surf zone approached saturation. In contrast to subtidal bars, the swash bar at Skallingen exhibited a divergent behaviour with respect to the cross‐shore position of the breaker zone, migrating onshore when the average wave broke seaward of the crest and migrating offshore when the average wave broke landward of the crest. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Description of littoral,alongshore sediment movement from empirical eigen‐function analysis

Measurements of 18 closely spaced beach profiles spanning Warilla Beach, N.S.W., over a 5‐year period have been examined for alongshore exchanges in beachface configuration. Horizontal slices of beach corresponding with berm, upper swash, upper and lower intertidal zones were examined by empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. The first four EOF's for each of the four slices contain over 90% of the total variance for each slice. In each instance the first eigen‐function mode represents the onshore‐offshore component of beach response, and accounts for 50 to 60% of the variance. Subsequent modes describe alongshore exchange of sediment associated with large, standing, cellular water circulations of the embayment. Sediment shunts along each horizontal slice are determined by identification of nodal points in the eigen‐functions. These represent pivotal points through which sediment is transferred. The patterns of exchange vary considerably from slice to slice, reflecting change in the dominant beach processes from swash processes in the top of the beach to wave, tidal and current processes on the lower beach slope. Despite their disparity, similar periodicities are determined for the sediment exchanges in each slice. The amplitude spectra of the time series associated with each eigen‐function indicate that the exchanges take place at 24, 12 and 6 monthly periods.     

Seismicity of Victoria to 1980

Since 1976 a number of analogue and digital seismographs, which record high frequency seismic waves in the range 4 to 20 Hz, have been installed in Victoria. These enable the detection and location of microearthquakes with Richter magnitude Ml down to less than zero. Because there are many more smaller than larger earthquakes, about 250 events are now being located in Victoria each year, compared with about 25 per year between 1960 and 1975, and an average of two per year between 1840 and 1959. Despite an uneven statewide seismograph coverage, the new instruments and new lithospheric models have led to substantial improvements in earthquake location accuracy. All Victorian earthquakes with reliable depth determinations have been found to lie within the crust, most at a depth of less than 18 km. Some very small but shallow microearthquakes have been felt or heard. The isoseismal map for such an event (of magnitude Ml 1.3) which occurred at Preston during July 1976, is given.

The greater range of magnitudes now recorded permits more reliable estimates of seismicity. On average, the recurrence of earthquakes in Victoria is represented by: log₁₀ (P) = 0.92M_L —2.40, where P is the return period of an earthquake with magnitude greater than M_l in an area of 100 km square. It is suggested that attenuation of seismic wave amplitudes with distance is quite high in Victoria.     

Modelling the time-varying extent of groundwater seepage on tidal beaches

The outcrop of groundwater on tidal beaches distinguishes an upper unsaturated region from a lower saturated region of the intertidal profile. Since the 1940s, it has been recognized that the extent of groundwater seepage at the beach face is one factor determining the tendency for erosive or accretionary conditions to prevail. As a primary step towards incorporating bed saturation characteristics within cross-shore sediment transport models, this paper (and accompanying program disk) details a simple model to simulate the time-varying extent of seepage face development across tidal beaches. From a comparison with field results obtained on the macrotidal Central Queensland (Australia) coast, the model appears to provide an encouraging degree of predictive capability. The model also assists in highlighting the sensitivity of seepage face development to varying beach face, tide and wave characteristics.     

Alongshore variation in beach cusp morphology in a coastal embayment

The variation in beach cusp characteristics was examined along a 1 km long embayed beach (Pearl Beach, New South Wales, Australia). The beach cusp morphology had formed during the previous day and/or night and displayed a marked alongshore variation in cusp spacing. The edge wave mechanism of beach cusp formation could not account for the observed trend in cusp spacing, because no relationship could be established between the spacing of the cusps and the gradient of the beachface. On the other hand, the cusp spacing was strongly related to the horizontal swash excursion, providing some support for the self-organization model of beach cusp formation. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

海滩冲流带高频振动及碎波带波浪作用的模态分析

一般来说,研究者对海滩中长尺度变化的研究比较多,通过时间间隔为数小时、1d,1周、1个月甚至1a一次的重复测量来分析海滩的变化特征,但海滩冲流带是动力和地形发生高频率变化的一个区域,每次波浪引起的上冲和回流过程均要引起滩面泥沙的运动,造成滩面的局部堆积和侵蚀,而滩面地形的改变又反过来影响到下一次的冲流过程。这些现象对研究海滩碎波带动力和滩面地形相互作用机理、认识近岸泥沙的运动规律以及探讨岸滩的长期冲淤演变是十分有意义的。     

考虑渗流效应的冲流带泥沙起动机理研究

为揭示内部渗流对海岸冲流带泥沙起动的影响,系统地开展了斜坡海床冲流特性与泥沙起动机理研究。通过室内水槽开展了孤立波在可渗透和不可渗透斜坡海床上的冲流试验,测试了冲流过程中波高、波速等变化规律;建立了渗透海床冲流数值模型并通过试验结果进行验证;深入分析了床面渗流对其波浪流场动态特征以及床面泥沙起动的影响机理。研究表明,床面渗流作用加剧波浪的不对称性,在波浪上冲过程中因床面强入渗作用而增大了床面切应力;回流过程因入渗所造成流量损失而导致床面切应力减小。床面渗流引起床面颗粒有效重度和切应力变化而导致泥沙希尔兹数大大增加,加剧了泥沙起动现象,且床面切应力改变是引起泥沙希尔兹数变化的主要因素。     

Non linear shallow water modelling of bore-driven swash: Description of the bottom boundary layer

The paper presents a simple approach to estimate the bottom shear stress in the swash zone by coupling the Non Linear Shallow Water Equations with the momentum integral equation for the bottom boundary layer. The approach allows not only the computation of the frictional dissipation term in the equations but also to have an insight into the flow structure in the water column during a swash event. The numerical results have been compared with a new set of experiments involving a single dam-break generated swash event. Three different grain sizes, ranging from coarse sand to gravel, have been tested in the laboratory.     

Wavy lamination in a mixed sand and gravel foreshore facies of the Pleistocene Hosoya Sandstone, Aichi, central Japan

Although sandy foreshore facies are generally characterized by parallel lamination, wavy lamination is predominant in the mixed sand and gravel foreshore facies of the Pleistocene Hosoya Sandstone, which crops out along the Pacific coast of the Atsumi Peninsula, Aichi, central Japan. The foreshore facies consists of three sedimentary subfacies; interbeds of gravel and parallel laminated sand of the lower foreshore facies, parallel laminated fine to medium sand beds containing scattered pebbles and cobbles of the middle foreshore facies, and wavy laminated fine to medium sand beds containing scattered pebbles and cobbles of the upper foreshore facies. A lack of erosional surfaces in the middle foreshore facies indicates the continuous accumulation of sand in flat beds under upper plane bed flow. The wavy laminated sands of the upper foreshore facies exhibit erosional surfaces indicative of repeated deposition and erosion. The erosional surfaces are undulatory, with depressions (10 cm wide and 3 cm deep) that contain scattered pebbles and cobbles. These depressions reflect backwash erosion of sand around and below the pebbles and cobbles. Sand draping over the undulating erosional surfaces forms the wavy lamination. The wavy laminated sand with scattered pebbles and cobbles is a key facies of an upper foreshore or swash zone, and is a good sea-level marker.     

海滩层理中的反递变纹层

本文提出海滩反递变纹层自下而上粒度由小到大,重矿物富集于纹层底部,它是前滨冲流“剪切分选”的产物。原生反递变纹层常被激浪破坏和再造,遇到后期加积海滩过程时,才能保存于海滩层理中。海滩层理的现场观测是研究海滩层理反递变纹层形成机理的重要方法之一。