Beach Sediments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Beach Sediments - Essay ExampleSome beaches be built to great widths by depositarys washed to the sea by episodic floods, gradually eroding until the attached major flood replenishes the sand (Beach Formation and Types of Beaches and Sand).Beach sediments are delivered per year in million cubic yards through longshore transport. Different beaches have different colors and textures because of the various sediments that make them up. at that place are beaches made up of eroded shale cliffs, multicolored agates background signal and polished by the surf, feldspar minerals, ground quartz, and even iron minerals. The various make up of the sediments determine the origin of these sand beaches which help researchers be more in weeation about a particular coast.Mechanical sediments, also known as clastic sediments, came from the erosion of oceanic rocks formed during the earlier times. These sediments are carried by streams or waves to the place where they are deposited. oceanic sedim ents, especially in the form of turbidites, are usually carried over and deposited at the bottom of continental slopes (The capital of South Carolina Encyclopedia 42907).Chemical reactions in seawater form chemical sediments which results in the precipitation of small mineral crystals that settle to the floor of the sea and finally form a chemically pure layer of sediment close tohow.Organic sediments are formed from plant or animal actions. ... There are also some traces of windblown vol fecal matteric and continental dusts found in organic sediments.Properties of SedimentsSediments have different properties which are universe studied by researchers for different purposes such as coastal engineering.One property of sediments is its physical form. Sediments can be loose, fluid, hard or buckram. Examples of loose sediments are sand and silt mud is a form of fluid sediment. There are also sand forms that are firm and stiff as clay. gruelling sediments are those rocks and coral pie ces that can be found in some beaches.Sediments can also be classified in terms of their cohesiveness. Sediments can be cohesive, non-cohesive or mitigated. Sediments such as clay and firm sand are highly cohesive as each particle stick closely together. botch and loose sands, as well as rocks and other loose particles, are non-cohesive. Mitigated sediments are chiefly non-cohesive sediments with a little mix of clay.Non-cohesive sediment behavior in water is mainly controlled by mechanic forces. The hydrodynamics of a particle refer to its ability to remain still or become entrained if on the bed surface, or to remain in suspension or to cease movement if in crusade (Sedimentation Investigations of Rivers and Reservoirs 7-1). The properties that crucially affect the non-cohesive particles hydrodynamics are its size, shape and specific gravity. The behavior of cohesive sediments, on the other hand, is controlled by electrochemical forces and dependent on the particle size, sedi ment mineralogy, and water chemistry.Particle size is considered to be the most important property of non-cohesive sediments. The size of the particle can be defined by any of the four methodsa) Nominal diameter - with this