Given this dynamic picture, we must now account for the suspended 
sediment stirred up by wave action and transported as littoral drift into 
the zone of inlet outflow (Figure 4B). A final simplifying assumption 
provides that the materials transported by the longshore current are of 
consistently large mean particle size and of relatively good sorting. 
Areas of the poorest and of the best sorted materials may be expected to 
take somewhat irregular shapes, as 4 result of interaction effects at the 
juncture of the two currents. Figure 4B shows the expected response 
relations, and the idealized shape of the areas of best and poorest sort- 
ing in the figure are based on considerations of velocity and turbulence 
dropoff. 
The field observations and the methods of trend analysis used with 
them are described in succeeding sections, leading to a field test of the 
several aspects of the final model just described. 
STUDY AREA 
The Borough of Virginia Beach (Figure 5) of the City of Virginia 
Beach, Virginia, is situated on the Atlantic seaboard 22 miles (35 km.) 
north of the Virginia-North Carolina line and 3.5 miles (5.6 km.) south 
of Cape Henry. Rudee Inlet, a "controlled" inlet, is located at the 
southern end of the borough and connects Lakes Wesley and Rudee with the 
Atlantic Ocean. At high tide, water flows from the ocean through Rudee 
Inlet into the lakes, and flow is reversed at low tide. At the time of 
sampling of bottom sediments around the entrance, the inlet channel was 
approximately 400 feet (120 m.) long and 150 feet (45 m.) wide. Owing to 
a sandbar on the north side of the channel, maximum flow occurred in a 
gorge ranging from 30 to 70 feet (9-21 m.) wide and 1 to 9 feet (0.3-2.7 m.) 
deep. The inlet lagoon had an area approximating 1/13 square mile 
(0.2 sq. km.) and the tidal prism approximated 6.0 x 10© cubic feet 
Ge7 eq0> eusem))- 
FIELD OBSERVATIONS 
Forty-one sand samples from the immediate vicinity of the inlet 
(Figure 6) were taken "simultaneously" (within a 15-minute period) from 
2 to 3 hours before low water on the morning of 25 March 1963. The number 
of sample stations was limited by available personnel and the time- 
consuming process of accurately positioning those taking samples. Sand 
samples were recovered by moving bags by hand through the upper 2 cm. of 
the bottom sediments. Shortly thereafter, 67 samples were taken along 
transects A, part of B, and C (Figure 5) at stations 25 feet (7.5 m.) 
apart. Sampling along the three transect lines was accomplished with pipe 
dredges having maximum penetration of about 2.5 cm. Details of the samp1- 
ing procedures are given by Harrison and Morales-Alamo (1964) and Harrison 
and Wagner (1964). 
