Large beach cusps with wavelengths O(200m), sometimes termed mega-cusps, were measured along 18km of the Southern Monterey Bay coastline from October 2004 to April 2005 to investigate the cuspate shoreline response to rip current systems. Monterey Bay is a unique location for the study of rip current systems, which has with well defined rips that are present all year long, a large dune erosional rate, and incident wave energy that is primarily shore-normal with a large alongshore gradient. Contours of the coastline were extrapolated from the surveys using an all-terrain vehicle equipped with Kinematic GPS. Cusp spacing was inferred from the data using a zero up-cross technique and found to be O(230m) for low wave energy beaches and O(250m) for high wave energy beaches. Migration rates of the cusps were found to be 1-5m/day owing to the quasi-uniform erosion of the dune system. Cusps were found to be semi-permanent features with length scales dependant upon the local wave climate.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nps.edu/oai:calhoun.nps.edu:10945/1924 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | McWilliams, Brandon K. |
| Contributors | Thornton, Edward, Stanton, Timothy, Naval Postgraduate School, Oceanography |
| Publisher | Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School |
| Source Sets | Naval Postgraduate School |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | xiv, 55 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, application/pdf |
| Rights | Approved for public release, distribution unlimited |
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