File:Shore processes and shoreline development (1919) (14577358168).jpg

Identifier: shoreprocessessh00john (find matches)
Title: Shore processes and shoreline development
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Johnson, Douglas Wilson, 1878-1944
Subjects: Shorelines Coasts
Publisher: New York : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (etc., etc.)
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
ion has already been ably discussed by Barrell^^ inhis essay on the Relative Geological Importance of Continental,Littoral, and Marine Sedimentation. The foregoing considerations lead to the interesting conclusionthat, other things being equal, marine erosion should proceedmost effectively about the low-lying desert areas of tropicalregions, especially on the windward sides of such areas. Forthe absence of rivers would permit the development of the shorecycle, unretarded by any land sediments except the very finematerial borne seaward by the winds. On the windward sideeven the seolian deposits would be lacking, while the onshorewinds would continually drive vigorous waves against the cliffs,and by elevating the water surface would tend to produce a strongundertow which would assist in removing the products of waveerosion to deep water. On the leeward side the interfering ac-tion of wind-borne material, the prevalence of mild wave action CORRELATION OF THE MARINE AND FLUVIAL CYCLES 245
Text Appearing After Image:
246 DEVELOPMENT OF THE SHORE PROFILE because of offshore winds, and the existence of a landward in-stead of a seaward bottom current, would all tend to retard cliffrecession. The absence of great storm waves in low latitudes,and the presence of coral building polyps, constitute specialfactors which would have to be taken into consideration in anyattempt to compare shore development about tropical desertswith that about the more humid land areas of higher latitudes.Independence of Marine and Fluvial Cycles. — It is imports^ntto remember that there is no necessary connection between thestages of development of a shoreline and the stages of develop-ment of the land mass which it borders. Each one developsindependently, the one under the influence of marine forces,the other under the influence of subaerial forces. If both begintheir evolution at the same time, the shoreline maj^ be youngwhile the land mass is in a youthful stage of development;and it may even happen that both attain ful

Note About Images