DISCUSSION 



Beach Characteristics 



Since beach cleanup operation depends significantly on the types 

 of the beach involved, it is useful to describe some of the common char- 

 acteristics of beaches. Thus, some selected standard beach terminology, 

 materials normally found on beaches , and common beach geometry are briefly 

 discussed in this section. 



Beach Terminology. The nomenclature of beach features has been 

 established by engineers and geologists [19] (Figure 1). Some of the 

 pertinent nomenclature is listed below: 



Baokshore: The zone between the foreshore and the coastline. 



Bar: An elongated slightly submerged sand body, made bare at low 

 tide. 



Beach.'. The zone of unconsolidate material extending landward from 

 mean low water line to the place where there is a change in material 

 or physiographic form. 



Berm: The nearly horizontal part of a beach inside the sloping 

 foreshore. 



Foreshore: The sloping part of the beach lying between the berm 

 and the low water mark. 



Longshore bar: A sand ridge or ridges, extending along the shore 

 outside the trough, that may be exposed at low tide or may occur below 

 the water level in the offshore. 



Nearshore: A relatively narrow zone extending seaward of the 

 shoreline and somewhat beyond the breaker zone. 



Offshore: The breaker zone directly seaward of the low tide line. 



Materials . Different materials for beaches usually result in 

 different features in profiles (Figure 2). In particular, there is a 

 strong correlation between beach foreshore slope and grain size. Table 

 2 shows the average beach face slopes and sediment diameters. 



Striking differences exist between the gravel beaches, coarse sand 

 beaches, and fine sand beaches. The typical gravel beach has a ridge 

 on the backshore where the waves have piled up the gravel sometimes 

 as much as 20 feet above normal high tide. Ordinarily there is no appre- 

 ciable berm in the gravel beaches, and the foreshore slopes continuously 

 seaward. Often the slope, however, is interrupted by a step near the 

 low tide line. In many beaches this step is sand covered. 



