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PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XXII, July 1968 
meters 
Fig. 5. Fathometer record No. 4. 
Fig. 6. Fathometer record No. 10. 
escarpment and on the talus-like slopes on the 
inner edge of the Lualualei Shelf. 
Nearshore and Offshore Sedimentation 
Generally the coastal area between Kaena and 
Kepuhi points (herein called the Makua Cell) 
is one littoral unit or cell, that is, a zone in 
which the beaches are essentially in equilibrium, 
and the sand produced within or transported 
into the cell is just balanced by the sand lost to 
deep water sedimentation (Chamberlain, in 
press). Very little sand is transported around 
either Kaena or Kepuhi points. 
The sand, nearshore and on the beach, is 
continually shifting in response to the wave and 
meters 
Fig. 7. Fathometer record No. 11. 
current regime, both on and offshore and 
alongshore. But usually there is a net, yearly, 
alongshore transport of sand to the south under 
the influence of the North Pacific Swell — high, 
powerful waves arising from the northwest 
gradient more than one-half of the time. These 
are mainly winter waves, and consequently most 
of the southward transport of sand takes place 
during that season. 
As a result of these littoral processes, the 
sand-size particles, produced on the reef or car- 
ried onto the beaches from the hinterland by 
the intermittent streams of the area, are carried 
southward in the littoral cell and piled up on 
the southernmost beaches, and offshore against 
the northern side of Kepuhi Point. 
The dives in the "Asherah” revealed that by 
no means all of the nearshore sand moves 
within the surf zone and on the beach to the 
south, but rather, a very substantial amount 
moves directly offshore, across the various 
marine terraces and escarpments into deep 
water. In Figure 2 an attempt is made to indi- 
cate these patches and channels by which sand 
is moved directly offshore. 
The sand-size particles that make up the 
beaches, and the nearshore and offshore sand 
bodies between Kaena and Kepuhi points are 
of various composition and from various 
sources. Generally the sand is of medium grain- 
size and well sorted. Most of the constituents 
are remains of reef organisms; a small per- 
centage of lithogenic components are present 
in the form of crystal grains of olivine and 
