SHORELINES AND COASTS OF THE GULF OF MEXICO 



By W. ARMSTRONG PRICE,= Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas 



INTRODUCTION 



The scientific study of shorelines is inextricably 

 involved with that of the hinterland, the coastal 

 zones, the adjacent inshore waters and the climate. 

 This linkage brings together regional geology, 

 geomorphology, sedimentation, oceanography of 

 the inshore zone, meteorology, climatology, biol- 

 ogy, chemistry, late geologic history and the 

 ecology of some marine and coastal organisms. 

 As the study of shorelines and their classification 

 is in somewhat incomplete and controversial 

 condition today, it is necessary to give a brief 

 review of the subject before discussing the shore- 

 line of a particular region, such as the Gulf of 

 Mexico, where there are new types and where we 

 have previously had few over-all geological 

 oceanographic conceptions to guide us. 



STATUS OF STUDIES OF COASTS AND SHORELINES 



The geological study of shorelines and coasts 

 has been intermittently' developed by numerous 

 geologists and geographers. The principal dis- 

 cussions of costal geomorphology that are readily 

 available are Johnson's (1919) detailed treatise 

 on shoreline development and his study of the 

 New England- Acadian shoreline (1925), Shepard's 

 (1937a, 1948) revision of Johnson's shoreline 

 classification. Steers' (1946, 1952) analytical de- 

 scription and history of the shoreline of England, 

 Wales, and Scotland, and Russell's (1940) study 

 of the development of variations in deltaic shore- 

 lines in Louisiana. McCurdy's (1947) discus- 

 sion of criteria for the delineation of shorelines 

 from air photographs yields critical details of some 

 types not found elsewhere. Fleming and Elliott 

 (1950) have made a beginning of an over-all 

 quantitative and qualitative oceanographic ap- 

 proach to the study of shorelines which is here 

 revised, enlarged and treated in greater detail, in 



' Contribution from the Department of Oceanography of the Aericultural 

 and Mechanical College of Te.xas, No. 15, April 1953. 



' Professor of Geological Oceanography. Formerly, independent petroleum 

 geologist of Corpus Christi, Texas. 



some of its aspects, for the Gulf of Mexico. Some 

 of the oceanographic data treated by these 

 workers have not been considered here. 



Among the greatest present needs in geomorphic 

 coastal studies are a critical analysis and descrip- 

 tion of the coastal plain shoreline and regional 

 studies combining the geomorphic and ocean- 

 ographic approaches. The research on which 

 this paper is primarily based was a comprehensive 

 survey of the shorelines of the Gulf from existing 

 data, including results of the writer's 20-year 

 study of the northwestern Gulf Coast. The 

 survey was made by the writer in 1951-1953.' 

 It has revealed a number of new types and re- 

 lationships not yet critically discussed in publica- 

 tion. Because of this situation, the writer is 

 handicapped in attempting a discussion of the 

 coasts of the Gulf of Mexico within as condensed 

 a scope as that of the present paper. 



The application of quantitative oceanographic 

 science to the analysis of the development of shore- 

 lines is being slowly accomplished through the 

 work of numerous scientists and engineers by 

 isolated studies of beaches, cliffs, deltas and 

 estuaries, but has only lately been attempted for 

 whole regions. In the writer's current research, 

 an attempt is being made to apply a quantitative 

 regional approach to the study of the influence of 

 oceanographic processes on shorelines and the 

 associated coastal and shallow-water bottom con- 

 ditions. Some of the results of this work are 

 reflected in this paper. 



SHORELINE CLASSIFICATION 



Eduard Suess (1888) showed that regional or 

 continental shorelines might be classed as con- 

 cordant or discordant with the grain (dominant 

 trend) of the geologic structures of a coastal region, 

 but King (1942, p. 99) cautioned that marine 

 activities subsequent to the drowning of a coast 

 or the formation of its folds and faults mav have 



3 Contains no references to the work of others after March 1, 1953. 



39 



