beach erosion Essay -- essays research papers

                 . Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the 208-foot t only catchment basin was just hauled more than a quarter-mile back from its former perch, where it was threatened by the encroaching sea. coastal erosion chewed away about 1,300 feet of beach, bringing the waves to inside 150 feet of the 4,800-ton sentinel. When the light was erected in 1870, it stood about 1,500 feet back from the waves. The lighthouse, on the outermost Banks, North Carolinas long barrier beach, was built to warn ships from waters called "the necropolis of the Atlantic." Ironically, the move should serve as a warning about the exploitation problem of coastal erosion. corroding is not just plaguing the Outer Banks. Coastal residents up and down the United States are worrying about undermined cliffs, vanish beaches, and the occasional dwelling diving into the briny. Beaches are constantly moving, building up here and eroding there, i n response to waves, winds, storms and relative sea train rise. so far when commoners like you and me, and celebs like Steven Spielberg, build along the beach in places like Southampton, N. Y., we dont always consider erosion. After all, real-estate transactions are seldom closed during hurricanes or northeasters, which cause the most dramatic damage to beaches. Yet Southampton, like all the barrier beaches that protect land from the sea, is vulnerable to obliteration by the very factor that makes it so glamorous the sea. And the problem is change magnitude because the sea is rising after centuries of relatively slow rise, and scientists anticipate that the ordain of rise will continue to increase in the next century. Land, in many places, is also slowly sinking. The result is a loss of sandpaper that places the occasional beachside home inconveniently near -- or in -- the water. Still, erosion cuts in two directions. Without the process of erosion, we would not have the beach es, dunes, barrier beaches, and the extremely productive bays and estuaries that owe their very existence to the presence of barrier beaches. Erosion of glacial landforms provides most of the beach sand in Massachusetts. A commonplace destination The beach-erosion problem has many causes. Among them are      The ubiquitous desire to go away near the sea.      A historically rapid ri... ...er -- as determined by the grounding line -- the upshot seems to be relative stability. "The ice streams do not appear to be susceptible to the kind of unstable lose once envisaged," says Bentley. "Their flow is largely insensitive to the presence of the ice ledge so the grounding line would remain the same." Instead of possibly collapsing in 100 years, as was considered possible 10 years ago, Bentley says the West south-polar Ice Sheet is more likely to collapse -- if at all -- in perhaps 5,000 years at the soonest. Dean, Cornelia. Again st the Tide The Battle for Americas Beaches. tonic York Columbia UP, 1999. Hanley, Robert. As Beaches Erode, a Debate on Wholl Pay for Repairs.The novel York Times, Apr. 20, 1998, P. A1. Kossoff, Julian and Kate Watson-Smyth. Fake Beaches Wreak Havoc on Sea Life. The individual (London), Aug. 2, 1998, p. 5. Moran, Kevin. Future of Beach Homes Is Uncertain as Shifting Sand.The Houston Chronicle, May 1, 1999, p. A1. fifty Bruce. Lines in the Sand The Beach as Battleground. The New York Times, May 23, 1999, p. LI14. Martin Douglas. bill Warns New York of Perils of Global Warming. The New York Times, June 30, 1999, p. B5.