Seaweed causing significant beach erosion

Barbados is losing vast tracts of beachland annually due to the almost continuous influx of Sargassum Seaweed on its shores. Click here to see the full article.

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coast

Glossary of Terms

Erosion Watch Spots

Areas where the coastal environment will soon be threatened if shoreline erosion trends continue.

Coastal Upland

The low-lying area landward of the beach that sometimes contains unconsolidated sediments.

The coastal upland is bounded by the hinterland (the higher-elevation areas dominated by bedrock and steeper slopes).

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.

Littoral Cell

A reach of the coast that is isolated sedimentologically from adjacent coastal reaches and that features its own sources and sinks. Isolation is typically caused by protruding headlands, submarine canyons, inlets, and some river mouths that prevent littoral sediment from one cell to pass into the next.

Step

The nearly horizontal section which more or less divides the beach from the shoreface.

Groyne Field

A series of groynes acting together to protect a section of beach. Also called a groyne system.

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Seaweed causing significant beach erosion