A bit more on the littoral zone

If you read the previous post on the littoral zone you will know about the shell accumulation and that I proposed  reasons for the enormous collection of shells and wondered why they appeared now having been absent a few days earlier.


If you haven't read the March 31st post, now's a good time - I think you will like it.


And this post has been modified Monday morning.

I like this photo and think that it demonstrates effectively the large number of shells that cover parts of the beach.

Today when Ruth and I were walking on the beach we noticed what might explain the recent appearance.

I mentioned in the last blog that we have been having some pretty heavy surf pounding on and reshaping the beach. This photo shows how much sand has been washed away leaving a fairly substantial wall between the level where the sand has been removed by the surf and the level where the beach has been since we arrived in February. This latter level is much higher than it was last year.

What we noticed today is in that "wall" of sand, there is some apparent stratification of shells with a couple of levels embedded in the sand below the upper surface.

So, here's another theory. In the previous blog post I suggested that the shells might have been brought in by the pumping equipment, but that they might also be washed up on the shore from time to time.

This may offer a bit of support for the shells having been brought in by the pumps and buried as they poured stuff on the beach. How they accumulated in layers isn't clear; but there certainly are shells embedded in the beach sand about one to two feet from the surface, depending on where you look. And in one place there seemed to be a second level of shells below the one shown in this photo.

If they were buried in layers like that, the reason for them appearing now could be that a particularly dense layer of shells has just been uncovered by the recent heavy surf eroding the beach.


This morning I was at the beach again and from this low tide photo it appears that the ocean is doing its work - the beach is clearing and the remaining shells are congregating closer to the low tide water level. 
This image (above) is the area where I first discovered all the shells (I was looking the other way when I took the photos in the previous blog post).

And a bit further in the other direction, the beach is amazingly clean! 

Whatever the reason for the appearance of all these shells, this post is really just a reason to show a few more photos of the shells,  the beach changes and the creative use of the shells by a 5 or 6 year old.

Enough on the littoral zone.