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Your Beach, Sanded Or Cut?


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The other day I was detecting on of the many beaches in Santa Monica Bay.  Just like all other beaches of the world there are some unique features about it that we all learn.  I was thinking about how much sand has been added since a swell event I detected about 6 months ago.  I can see where that cut was and I see where the new beach line is and it is 25-30 feet in many places.  Our wave pattern with the La Nina has sanded things in.  We have earthquakes which raise our plate.  How about your beaches from the old days?

Before I started metal detecting I was a surfer.  Many natural breaks have been there for years.  I'm sure some are gone.  Has 'climate change' changed your surfing spots?  I know some beaches in Florida have had sand added for replenishment.  I just read articles about North Carolina and salt intrusion killing coastal forests.  They showed before and after photos.

Do you have any old detecting photos that would show your beaches 20, 30 or 40 years ago?

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Here is a study that is 20 years old which details some of our earthquake faults under the bay.

 

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/cfusion/external_grants/reports/03HQGR0048.pdf 

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  • The title was changed to Your Beach, Sanded Or Cut?

mn90403, What are you specifically asking ?  To see pictures of beaches in the old days, versus now ?  I've taken a bunch of pictures in the last 10 to 15 yrs, whenever I've been hunting erosion events up here where I'm at (Monterey bay beaches).   And sure, if you took a picture now, the "cut" (or scallop or slope, etc...) is now gone.   I can show you pix of some erosion event lay-of-land, but unless I went and took the same vantage point now, you wouldn't really know what you were looking at (ie.: it wouldn't be a before and after pix, unless I went to the same spots today with camera).

 

I regret not getting pictures of the 1982-83 El Nino (6 ft cuts that stretched for blocks long in some cases !).  And I regret not getting pix during the 1996-97 El Nino.  But go figure, that was before digital cameras.    I'm sure you can find google images of erosion on CA beaches (including So. CA) during past heavy storm years.

 

From what I hear, a lot of So. CA beaches, are so enormous like you see them now (where the water is seeminly a 5 minute walk from the parking lot, doh !), Because in the 1940s and '50s, the army corps of engineers made scores of jetties all up and down the So. CA coast.  And those "trap sand", making enormous beaches.   I guess to protect against erosion.

 

So if you ever find old pictures from, say, before the 1940s, of your So. CA beaches, you'll notice that many of them were quite a bit narrower.  Such that, back then, high-water storm events might bring waves all the way back to what is now parking lots and beach side streets and cliffs.  But today, you could never in a million years imagine the water reaching that far back.  Eh ?

 

A micro-example of that, in my area, is Santa Cruz Main beach (the "Boardwalk") :  In the mid 1960s they made the downstream Twin Lakes Yacht harbor jetty, so that the pleasure boats could come and go through the channel that the jetty protects.   That had the affect of "backing up" the sand, for all the beaches north of that (since wet sand "migrates" with the tides and swells).   So if you look at 1950s photo of Santa Cruz main beach, versus now, it's pretty sad.  And it's the reason why silver and old coins is rarely found now on those beaches.  Even after storm erosion.   Because it's simply never getting down to yester-year levels anymore.

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On 4/10/2021 at 11:52 AM, mn90403 said:

Do you have any old detecting photos that would show your beaches 20, 30 or 40 years ago?

 

The house on the right was built in 1663. I live about 100 yards from the flagpole. I try to go hunting at the lowest tide possible.

BEFORE 20112-19-12 01.JPG

AFTER 20141-24a.JPG

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How far from the ocean was the house in 1663?  Was there loss of beach compared to today?  Great beach!  GaryC/Oregon Coast

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1 hour ago, GaryC/Oregon Coast said:

How far from the ocean was the house in 1663?  Was there loss of beach compared to today?  Great beach!  GaryC/Oregon Coast

This is the bay and not the ocean. At low-low tide you can see old building foundations made of wood about 1/2 mile from the shoreline (called the apple orchard). The house known as the Spyhouse and is in NJ (Patriots spied on British ships going to Manhattan NY). A lot of history here.

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