Recreational beaches, such as this one in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

St Oswalds Bay, Dorset, England. Wild sand and shingle beaches are shaped and maintained naturally by wave actions.

A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shells or coralline algae. Sediments settle in different densities and structures, depending on the local wave action and weather, creating different textures, colors and gradients or layers of material.

Though some beaches form on inland freshwater locations such as lakes and rivers, most beaches are in coastal areas where wave or current action deposits and reworks sediments. Erosion and changing of beach geologies happens through natural processes, like wave action and extreme weather events. Where wind conditions are correct, beaches can be backed by coastal dunes which offer protection and regeneration for the beach. However, these natural forces have become more extreme due to climate change, permanently altering beaches at very rapid rates. Some estimates describe as much as 50 percent of the earth's sandy beaches disappearing by 2100 due to climate-change driven sea level rise.^[1]

Sandy beaches occupy about one third of global coastlines.^[1] These beaches are popular for recreation, playing important economic and cultural roles—often driving local tourism industries. To support these uses, some beaches have human-made infrastructure, such as lifeguard posts, changing rooms, showers, shacks and bars. They may also have hospitality venues (such as resorts, camps, hotels, and restaurants) nearby or housing, both for permanent and seasonal residents.

Human forces have significantly changed beaches globally: direct impacts include bad construction practices on dunes and coastlines, while indirect human impacts include water pollution, plastic pollution and coastal erosion from sea level rise and climate change. Some coastal management practices are designed to preserve or restore natural beach processes, while some beaches are actively restored through practices like beach nourishment.

Marine debris on a beach in Hawaii.

Wild beaches, also known as undeveloped or undiscovered beaches, are not developed for tourism or recreation. Preserved beaches are important biomes with important roles in aquatic or marine biodiversity, such as for breeding grounds for sea turtles or nesting areas for seabirds or penguins. Preserved beaches and their associated dune are important for protection from extreme weather for inland ecosystems and human infrastructure.^[1]

Location and profile

A berm is a nearly horizontal portion that stays dry except during extremely high tides and storms. The swash zone is alternately covered and exposed by wave run-up. The beach face is the sloping section below the berm that is exposed to the swash of the waves. The wrack line (not shown here) is the highest reach of the daily tide where organic and inorganic debris is deposited by wave action. May have sand dunes.^[2]

Although the seashore is most commonly associated with the word beach, beaches are also found by lakes and alongside large rivers.

Beach may refer to:

• small systems where rock material moves onshore, offshore, or alongshore by the forces of waves and currents; or
• geological units of considerable size.

The former are described in detail below; the larger geological units are discussed elsewhere under bars.

There are several conspicuous parts to a beach that relate to the processes that form and shape it. The part mostly above water (depending upon tide), and more or less actively influenced by the waves at some point in the tide, is termed the beach berm. The berm is the deposit of material comprising the active shoreline. The berm has a crest (top) and a face—the latter being the slope leading down towards the water from the crest. At the very bottom of the face, there may be a trough, and further seaward one or more long shore bars: slightly raised, underwater embankments formed where the waves first start to break.

The sand deposit may extend well inland from the berm crest, where there may be evidence of one or more older crests (the storm beach) resulting from very large storm waves and beyond the influence of the normal waves. At some point the influence of the waves (even storm waves) on the material comprising the beach stops, and if the particles are small enough (sand size or smaller), winds shape the feature. Where wind is the force distributing the grains inland, the deposit behind the beach becomes a dune.

The differences between summer and winter on beaches in areas where the winter conditions are rougher and waves have a shorter wavelength but higher energy. In winter, sand from the beach is stored offshore.^[2]

These geomorphic features compose what is called the beach profile. The beach profile changes seasonally due to the change in wave energy experienced during summer and winter months. In temperate areas where summer is characterised by calmer seas and longer periods between breaking wave crests, the beach profile is higher in summer. The gentle wave action during this season tends to transport sediment up the beach towards the berm where it is deposited and remains while the water recedes. Onshore winds carry it further inland forming and enhancing dunes.

Conversely, the beach profile is lower in the storm season (winter in temperate areas) due to the increased wave energy, and the shorter periods between breaking wave crests. Higher energy waves breaking in quick succession tend to mobilise sediment from the shallows, keeping it in suspension where it is prone to be carried along the beach by longshore currents, or carried out to sea to form longshore bars, especially if the longshore current meets an outflow from a river or flooding stream. The removal of sediment from the beach berm and dune thus decreases the beach profile.

If storms coincide with unusually high tides, or with a freak wave event such as a tidal surge or tsunami which causes significant coastal flooding, substantial quantities of material may be eroded from the coastal plain or dunes behind the berm by receding water. This flow may alter the shape of the coastline, enlarge the mouths of rivers and create new deltas at the mouths of streams that had not been powerful enough to overcome longshore movement of sediment.

The line between beach and dune is difficult to define in the field. Over any significant period of time, sediment is always being exchanged between them. The drift line (the high point of material deposited by waves) is one potential demarcation. This would be the point at which significant wind movement of sand could occur, since the normal waves do not wet the sand beyond this area. However, the drift line is likely to move inland under assault by storm waves.^[3]

Formation

Quartz sand particles and shell fragments from a beach. The primary component of typical beach sand is quartz, or silica (SiO₂).

Sand and shingle is scoured, graded and moved around by the action of waves and currents

Beach formed on a wild, untamed rocky coastline

Beaches are the result of wave action by which waves or currents move sand or other loose sediments of which the beach is made as these particles are held in suspension. Alternatively, sand may be moved by saltation (a bouncing movement of large particles). Beach materials come from erosion of rocks offshore, as well as from headland erosion and slumping producing deposits of scree. A coral reef offshore is a significant source of sand particles. Some species of fish that feed on algae attached to coral outcrops and rocks can create substantial quantities of sand particles over their lifetime as they nibble during feeding, digesting the organic matter, and discarding the rock and coral particles which pass through their digestive tracts.

The composition of the beach depends upon the nature and quantity of sediments upstream of the beach, and the speed of flow and turbidity of water and wind. Sediments are moved by moving water and wind according to their particle size and state of compaction. Particles tend to settle and compact in still water. Once compacted, they are more resistant to erosion. Established vegetation (especially species with complex network root systems) will resist erosion by slowing the fluid flow at the surface layer. When affected by moving water or wind, particles that are eroded and held in suspension will increase the erosive power of the fluid that holds them by increasing the average density, viscosity, and volume of the moving fluid.

Coastlines facing very energetic wind and wave systems will tend to hold only large rocks as smaller particles will be held in suspension in the turbid water column and carried to calmer areas by longshore currents and tides. Coastlines that are protected from waves and winds will tend to allow finer sediments such as clay and mud to precipitate creating mud flats and mangrove forests. The shape of a beach depends on whether the waves are constructive or destructive, and whether the material is sand or shingle. Waves are constructive if the period between their wave crests is long enough for the breaking water to recede and the sediment to settle before the succeeding wave arrives and breaks.

Fine sediment transported from lower down the beach profile will compact if the receding water percolates or soaks into the beach. Compacted sediment is more resistant to movement by turbulent water from succeeding waves. Conversely, waves are destructive if the period between the wave crests is short. Sediment that remains in suspension when the following wave crest arrives will not be able to settle and compact and will be more susceptible to erosion by longshore currents and receding tides. The nature of sediments found on a beach tends to indicate the energy of the waves and wind in the locality.

Constructive waves move material up the beach while destructive waves move the material down the beach. During seasons when destructive waves are prevalent, the shallows will carry an increased load of sediment and organic matter in suspension. On sandy beaches, the turbulent backwash of destructive waves removes material forming a gently sloping beach. On pebble and shingle beaches the swash is dissipated more quickly because the large particle size allows greater percolation, thereby reducing the power of the backwash, and the beach remains steep. Compacted fine sediments will form a smooth beach surface that resists wind and water erosion.

During hot calm seasons, a crust may form on the surface of ocean beaches as the heat of the sun evaporates the water leaving the salt which crystallises around the sand particles. This crust forms an additional protective layer that resists wind erosion unless disturbed by animals or dissolved by the advancing tide. Cusps and horns form where incoming waves divide, depositing sand as horns and scouring out sand to form cusps. This forms the uneven face on some sand shorelines. White sand beaches look white because the quartz or eroded limestone in the sand reflects or scatters sunlight without absorbing other colors.

Sand colors

Depiction of sands:
glass, dune, quartz
volcanic, biogenic coral, pink coral
volcanic, garnet, olivine

The composition of the sand varies depending on the local minerals and geology.^[4] Some of the types of sand found in beaches around the world are:

• White sand: Mostly made of quartz and limestone, it can also contain other minerals like feldspar and gypsum .^[4][5]
• Light-colored sand: This sand gets its color from quartz and iron,^[4] and is the most common sand color in Southern Europe^[6] and other regions of the Mediterranean Basin, such as Tunisia.^[4]
• Tropical white sand: On tropical islands, the sand is composed of calcium carbonate from the shells and skeletons of marine organisms, like corals and mollusks, as found in Aruba.^[4]
• Pink coral sand: Like the above, is composed of calcium carbonate and gets its pink hue from fragments of coral, such as in Bermuda and the Bahama Islands.^[4]
• Black sand: Black sand is composed of volcanic rock, like basalt and obsidian, which give it its gray-black color.^[4] Hawaii's Punaluu Beach, Madeira's Praia Formosa and Fuerteventura's Ajuy beach are examples of this type of sand.^[4]
• Red sand: This kind of sand is created by the oxidation of iron from volcanic rocks.^[5] Santorini's Kokkini Beach or the beaches on Prince Edward Island in Canada are examples of this kind of sand.^[5]
• Orange sand: Orange sand is high on iron. It can also me a combination of orange limestone, crushed shells, and volcanic deposits.^[5] Ramla Bay in Gozo, Malta or Porto Ferro in Sardinia are examples of each, respectively.^[4]
• Green sand: In this kind of sand, the mineral olivine has been separated from other volcanic fragments by erosive forces.^[4] A famous example is Hawaii's Papakolea Beach, which has sand containing basalt and coral fragments.^[4] Olivine beaches have high potential for carbon sequestration, and artificial greensand beaches are being explored for this process by Project Vesta.^[7]

Types of beach sand

• 
  Fine, white sand made up of pure quartz in Hyams Beach, New South Wales, Australia.
• 
  Yellow-colored sand in Castelldefels beach, Spain.
• 
  One of Bermuda's pink-sand beaches at Astwood Park.
• 
  Ajuy's beach black sand.
• 
  Red sand from Santorini's Kokkini beach.
• 
  Orange sand from Ramla Bay, Malta
• 
  Close view of Papakolea Beach's green sand.
• 
  Grey sand at Carters Beach, New Zealand

Erosion and accretion

Natural erosion and accretion

A sandspit can form if a beach suddenly changes direction.

Hidden beach in southern Croatia

Playing in the surf is a popular recreational activity.

Beach in the Galápagos Islands reserved for marine animals

Anse Source d'Argent, La Digue, Seychelles

Maldives dream beaches

Causes

Beaches are changed in shape chiefly by the movement of water and wind. Any weather event that is associated with turbid or fast-flowing water or high winds will erode exposed beaches. Longshore currents will tend to replenish beach sediments and repair storm damage. Tidal waterways generally change the shape of their adjacent beaches by small degrees with every tidal cycle. Over time these changes can become substantial leading to significant changes in the size and location of the beach.

Effects on flora

Changes in the shape of the beach may undermine the roots of large trees and other flora. Many beach adapted species (such as coconut palms) have a fine root system and large root ball which tends to withstand wave and wind action and tends to stabilize beaches better than other trees with a lesser root ball.

Effects on adjacent land

Erosion of beaches can expose less resilient soils and rocks to wind and wave action leading to undermining of coastal headlands eventually resulting in catastrophic collapse of large quantities of overburden into the shallows. This material may be distributed along the beach front leading to a change in the habitat as sea grasses and corals in the shallows may be buried or deprived of light and nutrients.

Use for recreation

History

A popular Victorian seaside resort. Llandudno, 1856

Even in Roman times, wealthy people spent their free time on the coast. They also built large villa complexes with bathing facilities (so-called maritime villas) in particularly beautiful locations. Excavations of Roman architecture can still be found today, for example on the Amalfi Coast near Naples and in Barcola in Trieste.^[8]

The development of the beach as a popular leisure resort from the mid-19th century was the first manifestation of what is now the global tourist industry. The first seaside resorts were opened in the 18th century for the aristocracy, who began to frequent the seaside as well as the then fashionable spa towns, for recreation and health.^[9] One of the earliest such seaside resorts, was Scarborough in Yorkshire during the 1720s; it had been a fashionable spa town since a stream of acidic water was discovered running from one of the cliffs to the south of the town in the 17th century.^[9] The first rolling bathing machines were introduced by 1735.

Brighton, The Front and the Chain Pier Seen in the Distance, early 19th century

The opening of the resort in Brighton and its reception of royal patronage from King George IV, extended the seaside as a resort for health and pleasure to the much larger London market, and the beach became a centre for upper-class pleasure and frivolity. This trend was praised and artistically elevated by the new romantic ideal of the picturesque landscape; Jane Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon is an example of that. Later, Queen Victoria's long-standing patronage of the Isle of Wight and Ramsgate in Kent ensured that a seaside residence was considered as a highly fashionable possession for those wealthy enough to afford more than one home.

Seaside resorts for the working class

Blackpool Promenade c. 1898

The extension of this form of leisure to the middle and working classes began with the development of the railways in the 1840s, which offered cheap fares to fast-growing resort towns. In particular, the completion of a branch line to the small seaside town of Blackpool from Poulton led to a sustained economic and demographic boom. A sudden influx of visitors, arriving by rail, led entrepreneurs to build accommodation and create new attractions, leading to more visitors and a rapid cycle of growth throughout the 1850s and 1860s.^[10]

The growth was intensified by the practice among the Lancashire cotton mill owners of closing the factories for a week every year to service and repair machinery. These became known as wakes weeks. Each town's mills would close for a different week, allowing Blackpool to manage a steady and reliable stream of visitors over a prolonged period in the summer. A prominent feature of the resort was the promenade and the pleasure piers, where an eclectic variety of performances vied for the people's attention. In 1863, the North Pier in Blackpool was completed, rapidly becoming a centre of attraction for upper class visitors. Central Pier was completed in 1868, with a theatre and a large open-air dance floor.^[11]

Many of the popular beach resorts were equipped with bathing machines, because even the all-covering beachwear of the period was considered immodest. By the end of the century the English coastline had over 100 large resort towns, some with populations exceeding 50,000.^[12]

Expansion around the world

Seaside facade at Monte Carlo, 1870s

The development of the seaside resort abroad was stimulated by the well-developed English love of the beach. The French Riviera alongside the Mediterranean had already become a popular destination for the British upper class by the end of the 18th century. In 1864, the first railway to Nice was completed, making the Riviera accessible to visitors from all over Europe. By 1874, residents of foreign enclaves in Nice, most of whom were British, numbered 25,000. The coastline became renowned for attracting the royalty of Europe, including Queen Victoria and King Edward VII.^[13]

Continental European attitudes towards gambling and nakedness tended to be more lax than in Britain, so British and French entrepreneurs were quick to exploit the possibilities. In 1863, Charles III, Prince of Monaco, and François Blanc, a French businessman, arranged for steamships and carriages to take visitors from Nice to Monaco, where large luxury hotels, gardens and casinos were built. The place was renamed Monte Carlo.

Commercial sea bathing spread to the United States and parts of the British Empire by the end of the 19th century. The first public beach in the United States was Revere Beach, which opened in 1896. During that same time, Henry Flagler developed the Florida East Coast Railway, which linked the coastal sea resorts developing at St. Augustine, FL and Miami Beach, FL, to winter travelers from the northern United States and Canada on the East Coast Railway. By the early 20th century surfing was developed in Hawaii and Australia; it spread to southern California by the early 1960s. By the 1970s cheap and affordable air travel led to the growth of a truly global tourism market which benefited areas such as the Mediterranean, Australia, South Africa, and the coastal Sun Belt regions of the United States.

Today

Summer
Joaquín Sorolla (1904)

Tourists at the Mediterranean Sea beach of Barcelona, 2007

Bondi Beach, a popular beach area in Sydney, Australia.

Pärnu, the summer capital of Estonia, is especially known for its sand beaches by the Baltic Sea, making it one of the most popular travel destinations.^[14][15]

Beaches can be popular on warm sunny days. In the Victorian era, many popular beach resorts were equipped with bathing machines because even the all-covering beachwear of the period was considered immodest.^[16] This social standard still prevails in many Muslim countries. At the other end of the spectrum are topfree beaches and nude beaches where clothing is optional or not allowed. In most countries social norms are significantly different on a beach in hot weather, compared to adjacent areas where similar behavior might not be tolerated and might even be prosecuted .

In more than thirty countries in Europe, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, Costa Rica, South America and the Caribbean, the best recreational beaches are awarded Blue Flag status, based on such criteria as water quality and safety provision. Subsequent loss of this status can have a severe effect on tourism revenues.

Beaches are often dumping grounds for waste and litter, necessitating the use of beach cleaners and other cleanup projects. More significantly, many beaches are a discharge zone for untreated sewage in most underdeveloped countries; even in developed countries beach closure is an occasional circumstance due to sanitary sewer overflow. In these cases of marine discharge, waterborne disease from fecal pathogens and contamination of certain marine species are a frequent outcome.

Access design

A beach access path in Key West, Florida

The entrance of the Romance Beach in Medan, using Sakura and spring-like decor, evoking a romantic sense as its name suggests.

Beach access is an important consideration where substantial numbers of pedestrians or vehicles require access to the beach. Allowing random access across delicate foredunes is seldom considered good practice as it is likely to lead to destruction of flora and consequent erosion of the fore dunes.

A well-designed beach access should:

• provide a durable surface able to withstand the traffic flow;
• aesthetically complement the surrounding structures and natural landforms;
• be located in an area that is convenient for users and consistent with safe traffic flows;
• be scaled to match the traffic flow (i.e. wide and strong enough to safely carry the size and quantity of pedestrians and vehicles intended to use it);
• be maintained appropriately; and
• be signed and lit to discourage beach users from creating their own alternative crossings that may be more destructive to the beachhead.

Longest beaches

Amongst the world's longest beaches are:

• Eighty Mile Beach (220 kilometres [140 mi]) in north-west Australia;
• Praia do Cassino (212 kilometres [132 mi]) in Brazil;
• Padre Island beach (about 182 kilometres [113 mi]) in Gulf of Mexico, Texas.
• Ninety Mile Beach, Victoria (151 kilometres [94 mi]) in Victoria, Australia;
• Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh (150 kilometres [93 mi] unbroken);
• Naikoon Provincial Park (100 kilometres [62 mi]) in the north-east of Haida Gwaii, Canada;
• Playa Novillera beach (about 90 kilometres [56 mi]) in Mexico.
• 90 Mile Beach in New Zealand (88 kilometres [55 mi]);
• Fraser Island beach (about 65 kilometres [40 mi]) in Queensland, Australia;
• Troia-Sines Beach (63 kilometres [39 mi]) in Portugal;
• the Jersey Shore, 204 km/127 miles; and
• Long Beach, Washington (which is about 40 kilometres [25 mi]).

Wildlife

A Kemp's ridley sea turtle nesting on the berm section of the beach; beyond can be seen plant debris in the wrack line.

A beach is an unstable environment that exposes plants and animals to changeable and potentially harsh conditions. Some animals burrow into the sand and feed on material deposited by the waves. Crabs, insects and shorebirds feed on these beach dwellers. The endangered piping plover and some tern species rely on beaches for nesting. Sea turtles also bury their eggs in ocean beaches. Seagrasses and other beach plants grow on undisturbed areas of the beach and dunes.

Ocean beaches are habitats with organisms adapted to salt spray, tidal overwash, and shifting sands. Some of these organisms are found only on beaches. Examples of these beach organisms in the southeast US include plants like sea oats, sea rocket, beach elder, beach morning glory (Ipomoea pes-caprae), and beach peanut, and animals such as mole crabs (Hippoidea), coquina clams (Donax), ghost crabs, and white beach tiger beetles.^[3]

See also

References

Works cited

• Andrews, Robert (2002). The Rough Guide to Britain. Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-85828-881-9.

Further reading

• Bascom, W. 1980. Waves and Beaches. Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York. 366 p.
• Schwartz, Maurice L. (1982). The Encyclopedia of Beaches and Coastal Environments: Volume 15 of Encyclopedia of earth sciences. Virginia: Hutchinson Ross Pub. Co. pp. 940. ISBN 0879332131.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beaches.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Beaches.

Look up beach in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Coping with beach erosion – UNESCO