Beach Evolution
The shoreline is where the land meets the sea and it is continually changing. Over the long term, the water is eroding the land. Beaches represent a special case, in that they exist where sand accumulated from the same processes that strip away rocky and sedmientary material. I.e., they can grow as well as erode. River deltas are another exception, in that silt that erodes up river can accrete at the river's outlet and extend ocean shorelines. Catastrophic events such as tsunamis, hurricanes and storm surges accelerate beach erosion, potentially carrying away the entire sand load. Human activities can be as catastrophic as hurricanes, albeit usually over a longer time interval.
Read more about Beach Evolution: Relative Sea Level Changes
Famous quotes containing the words beach and/or evolution:
“The seashore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-traveled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What we think of as our sensitivity is only the higher evolution of terror in a poor dumb beast. We suffer for nothing. Our own death wish is our only real tragedy.”
—Mario Puzo (b. 1920)