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Glossary

Glossary of Terms

Gabion

Steel wire-mesh basket to hold stones or crushed rock to protect a bank or bottom from erosion. Structures composed of masses of rocks, rubble or masonry held tightly together usually by wire mesh so as to form blocks or walls. Sometimes used (although not recommended) on heavy erosion coastal areas to retard wave action.

Groundwater

Water that occupies pores and crevices in rock and soil, below the surface of the Earth. The upper limit of the groundwater is the water table, whose level varies according to the quantity of water entering and extracted from the groundwater. (See also aquifers).

Pocket Beach

A beach, usually small, in a coastal reentrant or between two littoral barriers (often rocky headlands).

Coastal Current

Those currents which flow roughly parallel to the shore and constitute a relatively uniform drift in the deeper water adjacent to the surf zone. These currents may be tidal currents, transient, wind-driven currents, or currents associated with the distribution of mass in local waters.

For navigational purposes, the term is used to designate a current in coastwise shipping lanes where the tidal current is frequently rotary.

Offshore Breakwater

A breakwater built towards the seaward limit of the littoral zone, parallel (or nearly parallel) to the shore.

Oceanography

The study of the sea embracing and indicating all knowledge pertaining to the sea's physical boundaries, the chemistry and physics of the seawater, marine biology, and marine geology.

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