Re: you can see the sand in the ocean
I remember an assignment in college physics that was darn close to your question, Daniel. Why does a beach change and how could you calculate and predict the dynamics? (I think the specific disaster was a new jetty that made a beach 25 mikes away disappear) The variables are almost infinite and will drive you crazy. I remember learning that not all sand is the same size, shape, density, or weight. Most beaches have composite sand making the question unique to a particular beach. Each factor will affect beach dynamics, and worse, change one particle characteristic and the others behave differently. Some sand also conglomerates, while other types do not. Then there is shape of the littoral cell to consider. Then we had to calculate wave fetch, period, volume, and velocity, and then adjust those numbers for tidal influence, then try and calculate the effects. Change one or more of those factors and beach dynamics change again. Then air pressure, temperature, wind, proximity of other bodies of water, and even solar heating can influence beach dynamics. Specifically, throw in the rock factor at la Manzanillia, and well … there’s you Ph.D. dissertation. So short version, if you seek one single explanation for why the beach changes as it does, that’s the wrong framing. Rather the question should be if a variable changes, what happens? And if two variables change, do you get something new that could not happen with a single variable change and so on and on and on… Thanks for making me think a bit!
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