Variation of the Beach Profile, Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California
Abstract
Ocean Beach is a 7-km-long stretch of beach that is the western boundary of the city of San Francisco with the Pacific Ocean. This beach is exposed to large winter waves produced in the North Pacific and smaller summer waves from both the North and South Pacific. Recent decades have seen an increased rate of erosion at the south end of the beach that has led to the partial collapse of a parking lot, and continued erosion threatens both public and private infrastructure. To gain an understanding of the variation in beach profiles we established six cross-shore profiles approximately 1 km apart. Each profile represents a part of the beach that experiences different wave conditions, caused by refraction across the San Francisco Bar, and thus has a different morphologic response to offshore sea conditions. The six sub-aerial profiles were measured using a total station one week apart in August 2006. All profiles increased in elevation and five of the six profiles showed the early formation or continued growth of berms. The same profiles will be re-analyzed in the autumn to determine further change, and compared to data collected by a 2004 SF-ROCKS group that also studied Ocean Beach. We will relate beach profile change to wave conditions measured at an offshore buoy to determine what wave conditions cause profile accretion or erosion. The results of this study will shed light on the processes occurring at Ocean Beach and will help us to understand why the south end of the beach is eroding.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AGUFMED43C0943H
- Keywords:
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- 0850 Geoscience education research;
- 0855 Diversity;
- 4546 Nearshore processes;
- 4558 Sediment transport (1862)