RICHARD J. RUSSELL WILLIAM G. Mcintire Coastal Studies Institute, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, La. Beach Cusps Abstr
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RICHARD J. RUSSELL Coastal Studies Institute, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, La. WILLIAM G. McINTIRE Beach Cusps Abstract: Beach cusps develop along seaward faces posure and state of the sea. Conditions under which of growing berms. They appear early in the transi- cusps disappear are described. Although most steps tional period of decreasing wave energy from in the depositional development and erosional winter- to summer-beach conditions. Growth stages removal of cusps are understood, the theory of their are described and related to currents within the origin will remain incomplete until the reasons for swash zone. Cusp spacing depends on coastal ex- their spacing are known in quantitative terms. CONTENTS Introduction and acknowledgments 307 3. Number of examples in spacing of cusp apices . 311 Field observations 308 4. Beach changes related to increasing and decreas- Juvenile cusps 311 ing wave energy 315 Well-developed cusps 312 5. Sequential stages of turbidity distribution and Cusp disappearance 312 current flow associated with growing cusps 316 Toward a theory of cusp origin 313 References cited 318 Plate Following Appendix 1. Relationship between apex and bay 1. Cusps on firm beaches slopes 319 2. Juvenile cusps Appendix 2. Relationship of cusp length to de- 3. Well-developed cusps gree of exposure 319 4. Cusp erosion, Preston Beach, south of Perth, Western Australia r-316 Figure 5. Asymmetrical erosion of cusps, Dominica . 1. Section across three series of cusps: Cluny, Basse 6. Cusp-originating processes Terre, Guadeloupe 309 7. Current flow into bays, Warnbro Sound, south 2. Comparison between bay and apex slopes . 310 of Safety Bay, Western Australia ment and formulating opinions about their INTRODUCTION AND histories, we turned to the literature, usually ACKNOWLEDGMENTS finding confusion at least as great as our own Our beach-cusp observations started in the during initial stages of investigation. Without West Indies in 1956 and subsequently were exaggeration, practically every idea concerning extended to the coasts of all the continents cusps advanced by one author is directly con- excepting Antarctica, with greatest concentra- tradicted by that of another. The inadequate tion centered on tropical and southern-hemi- theories of origin advanced by Branner, sphere beaches. The main objectives of field Cornish, Jefferson, Johnson, Kemp, Lane, work were investigations of beach morphology, Shaler, and Wilson have been reviewed in beach rock, and eustatic changes of sea level, practically all American beach cusp literature. and the relating of coastal characteristics to Rather than retracing familiar paths we will lithology and structural deformation. We ob- restrict our reference comments to contri- served beach cusps on so many occasions that butions that we consider particularly interest- we decided to record their characteristics in ing or instructive. quantitative terms and to collect sediment Palmer (1834) noted the ability of waves to samples, in the hope that we might learn how drive loose material up a beach and observed cusps originate. In some cases, mainly in the the winnowing effect of backwash. He esti- West Indies and Western Australia, we re- mated that if 10 or fewer breakers arrive per turned to familiar locations during opposite minute shingle accumulates, but with more seasons to make comparative studies. than 10 breakers per minute the beach starts After studying 84 examples of cusp develop- washing away. He noted (p. 572) that after Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 76, p. 307-320, 5 figs., 7 pis., March 1965 307 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/76/3/307/3427659/i0016-7606-76-3-307.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 308 RUSSELL AND McINTIRE—BEACH CUSPS having "struck" pebbles upward, . "waves monly destroy cusps. He also emphasized wider instead of returning in dispersed and weakened cusp spacing as resulting from higher waves. form, moved back in columns, which were of Our field work, in connection with Coastal sufficient power to return every pebble that Studies Institute projects, was supported fi- had been thrown up." A succession of waves nancially by the Geography Branch, Office of caused slight depressions that increased in size Naval Research (Project No. Nonr 1575 [03], to localize continuous channels. Having broken, Task Order No. NR 388 002). the waves . "are again collected and returned through the channels, and remove all loose FIELD OBSERVATIONS material from them." Between the channels a Horns of cusps consist of softer deposits than series of parallel "banks" (p. 573) developed. occur in the bays between them. Pits dug in Although this is probably the earliest statement freshly formed cusps are likely to reveal con- concerning beach cusp origin, Palmer's con- siderable interstitial water. Cusps commonly tribution contains a greater number of per- display coarser sediments (in many cases gravel tinent observations than appeared during the or shell fragments) than those on bay floors. succeeding century. Even where beach deposits appear to be quite Kuenen (1948) emphasized the depositional homogeneous, mechanical analyses of samples origin of cusps, noting that the horns com- ordinarily reveal coarser sizes in the horns. If monly are composed of deposits that differ many beaches are examined which are com- from those of beaches upon which they rest. posed of a wide variety of materials, and cusps Guilcher (1949) advanced a theory of origin are observed in various stages of development that differs but little from our own conclusions. and dissipation, it becomes evident that cusps Boye (1954), influenced by Cailleux, correctly are deposits on pre-existing beaches. observed contrasts which he regarded as indi- Cusps appear and disappear within the low cating that horn deposits are "sea-sorted," zone of frequent wave uprush, toward the whereas those in bays between exhibit com- upper limits reached by the swash. Those shown posite "fluvio-marine" sorting. in Figure 1 of Plate 1 appeared overnight along Bagnold (1940), in spite of the fact that a beach sheltered by a reef flat 200 yards wide many writers maintain that tidal influences are on West Island of Cocos-Keeling Atoll. On the involved in cusp formation, presented an ex- preceding evening the low beach consisted of cellent description of their development west fine, calcareous sand which was hard and of Alexandria, Egypt, in the nearly tideless smooth. After a night of moderate but un- Mediterranean. Their spacing averaged 12 m; spectacular wave activity 12 cusps were present. apices of horns sloped seaward at an angle of Each was composed of coral gravel, with frag- 14°, whereas in adjacent bays the slope was ments up to 6 inches in length. Cusp bases only 3°. He noted further that the step line, merged into a fairly continuous depositional where waves break, was unindented. Possibly berm consisting of similar deposits. The tide more effectively than any other observer, he was high, and most of the reef flat was covered described water motions in which the surge of when the picture was taken. A short distance waves piles up quickly toward a cusp apex, below the water's edge gravel similar to that in then divides into streams leading toward adja- the cusps and berm was exposed along the step. cent bays, where the flow attains such down- Berms and cusps of this kind, as well as much slope momentum that surges proceeding di- larger ones, commonly form and may disappear rectly into bays are headed off. Flow down the within a few hours. Their surfaces eventually "hollow" had greater intensity than the op- may culminate in a summit flat, which com- posed wave uprush. He also noted that, whereas monly exhibits some backslope. the uprush and backwash of waves on a straight Cusps develop in a wide variety of beach beach are separated by a "dead" position, deposits. Examples included in our observations where "sand is at rest," the flow of surges up were distributed percentagewise roughly into cusp apices continues without interruption the following size categories: boulders, 12 per down the slopes leading into bays and back cent; gravel or coarse grit, 16; extremely soft, toward the sea (p. 46). coarse sand, 24; soft medium sand, 40, and Shepard (1963, p. 201) correctly contra- relatively hard fine sand, 8. Petrologic composi- dicted the views of some writers, in observing tions ranged from basalt or other rocks to that diagonal wave approach is inimical to cusp nearly pure shell fragments, including the development, and that longshore currents com- mineral spectrum from black, heavy, ilmenite- Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/76/3/307/3427659/i0016-7606-76-3-307.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 FIELD OBSERVATIONS 309 or magnetite-rich sand to white, light, cal- of a new berm is determined. If wave heights careous, organic sand. A bias toward higher have been exceptionally large the new cusps gravel or shell content and poorer sorting than will form high on the upper beach and will be in adjacent bay deposits depends both on dep- widely spaced. ositional processes and the type of material Two levels of cusps may be seen quite com- exposed along the nearby step. When cusps monly, in some cases three or more may be wash away, the sediment may be carried some observed. The spacing between their apices distance offshore, but in most cases coarser invariably is shortest in the lowest series. An materials are soon worked back to the step example of three series was instrumentally zone. surveyed at the west end of the long beach at The literature about beaches ordinarily Cluny, on the northern shore of Basse Terre, stresses contrasts between winter and summer Guadeloupe (Fig. 1). The thickness of deposits characteristics, and indeed the differences are in series designated as I, II, and III is indicated striking.