More Details

Summary:

Take this book to the beach; it will open up a whole new world. Illustrated throughout with color photographs, maps, and graphics, it explores one of the planet's most dynamic environments, from tourist beaches to Arctic beaches strewn with ice chunks to steaming hot tropical shores. It tells how beaches work, explains why they vary so much, and shows how dramatic changes can occur on them in a matter of hours. It discusses tides, waves, and wind; the patterns of dunes, washover fans, and wrack lines; and the shape of berms, bars, shell lags, cusps, ripples, and blisters. What is the world's longest beach? Why do some beaches sing when you walk on them? Why do some have dark rings on their surface and tiny holes scattered far and wide? This guide also considers the future of beaches, and explains how extensively people have affected them, from coastal engineering to pollution, oil spills, and rising sea levels.

Table of Contents:

• Machine generated contents note: pt. I GLOBAL CHARACTER OF BEACHES
• 1. World of Beaches
• Crossroads of History
• Avenues of Commerce
• Nature's Most Dynamic Environment
• Varied Materials
• Obstacle Courses
• To Be or Not to Be
• Comber's Delight or Nature's Trash Collector?
• Sidebar: Beach Stuff
• Natural Laboratory
• 2. Beaches of the World
• What Is a Beach?
• Recipe for Making a Beach
• Classification of Coasts and Beaches
• Classifications and a Global Model
• Beach Sediments and the Plate Tectonic Setting
• Beaches as Landforms
• Climate and Types of Coasts
• Sidebar: The World's Longest Beach

• We Stand on Their Shoulders
• Sidebar: Societal Classification of Beaches
• 3. Of What Are Beaches Made? Sediments
• Beach Sediments
• Terrigenous Sediments
• Heavy Minerals
• Carbonate Sediments
• Other Beach Materials
• Sidebar: Terrigenous Beach Minerals
• Sidebar: Beach Mining
• Sidebar: Beach Rock
• 4. How Beaches Work: Waves, Currents, Tides, and Wind
• Most Dynamic Place on Earth
• Waves
• Currents (Longshore, Onshore, Offshore)
• Tides
• Other Water-Level Changes
• Wind
• Sidebar: Sea-Level Rise
• Global Picture
• 5. Form of the Beach: Crab's-Eye and Bird's-Eye Views
• Beach Profiles: The Crab's-Eye View
• Beach Plans: The Bird's-Eye View
• pt. II HOW TO READ A BEACH
• 6. Beach Surface Up Close: Imprints of Tides, Currents, and Waves
• Nearshore, Beach, and Tidal-Flat Features
• Swash and Backwash Features
• Sidebar: Foam
• Other Surface Features
• 7. Escape from Within: Air and Water in the Beach
• Knee-Deep in Sand: Airy Beaches
• Air Escape Structures
• Watery Beaches and Water Escape Structures
• 8. Whichever Way the Wind Blows: Reworking the Beach Surface
• Wind on Wet Sand and Mud
• Wet-to-Dry Transition Structures
• Wind on Dry Sediment
• Dunes and Dune Structures
• Sidebar: Sounds of the Sand
• Dune Plants: Surviving in a Desert
• Sidebar: Fulgurites
• 9. Beach Creatures: Tracks, Trails, and Traces
• Beach Animals from Micro to Macro
• Macrofaunal Clues
• Evidence of the Habitat Role of Animals
• 10. Carbonate Beaches: Seashells and the Stories They Tell
• Carbonate Shells, Skeletons, and Secretions
• Other Carbonate-Producing Organisms
• Other Carbonate Sediments
• Noncalcareous Plant and Animal Remains
• Shell Abundance
• Where Do Seashells Come From?
• Significance of Broken Seashells
• Shell Rounding
• Orientation of Shells on the Beach
• Secondary Shell Color
• Shell Collecting: An Environmental Afterthought
• 11. Digging the Beach: Into the Third Dimension
• Bedding
• Black Sands and Cross Bedding
• Burrows and Bioturbation
• Sidebar: Evidence of a Retreating Beach
• pt. III GLOBAL THREAT TO BEACHES
• 12. Beaches at Risk: Sea-Level Rise and the Human Response
• Coastal Engineering
• Other Damaging Activities
• Water Pollution
• Oil Spills
• Sidebar: A Toxic Green Wave on the Beach
• Environmental Truths About Beaches
• 13. Urbanized Beach: From Middens to the Maelstrom of Development.

View 71 more lines View less

Contributors:

Pilkey, Orrin H., 1934-

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Subjects:

Beaches

Seashore

Coasts

Coast changes

General Notes:

On cover: A global guide to the science of the shoreline.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-278) and index.
Description based on print version record.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Call Numbers:

GB451.2 .W667 2011eb

ISBNs:

9780520948945 (electronic bk.)
0520948947 (electronic bk.)
9780520268715 [Invalid]
0520268717 [Invalid]
9780520268722 [Invalid]
0520268725 [Invalid]

OCLC Numbers:

754112431

Other Control Numbers:

EBC730027 (source: MiAaPQ)
[Unknown Type]: ybp6956996