Storms of Herring Cove Beach
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This earthcache will give you a unique view of the recent storm history of a barrier beach in Herring Cove Provincial Park.
Welcome to Herring Cove Provincial Park, a 1,049 acres provincial park located on Campobello Island, New Brunswick near the Maine border that is best known for its trails, golf course and beautiful sand beach. Here the forces of the past and present meet to produce a beautiful barriers beach. The bedrock of the Quoddy Formation followed by the force of the most recent glacial period represent the forces from the past. But today the force that is currently shaping the beach is the waters of the Bay of Fundy with its longshore drift and stormy weather.
When we think of a beach we often think of the smooth, sandy beaches of eastern New Brunswick that are so popular with summer sun-seekers. In contrast, most beaches along the Fundy coast are made of stones. The beach that you are looking at is called a barrier beach that separates Lake Glensevern from the waters of Herring Cove in Bay of Fundy. While the Fundy coast of New Brunswick is widely renowned as the "rock-bound coast." One of the most publicized landscapes for conflict between human development and natural processes is the sandy coast. Beaches and sand dunes are dynamic areas, constantly shifting in response to waves, winds, tides, coastal currents and the weather. In order to appreciate the beach you have to understand the materials that create, the forces that shape, and the features that identify them. Now that the glacier is gone the waves are the most important agent in the process of shaping the beach. In the winter months the beach is eroded while it is generally built up during the summer months. This beach is referred to as a recurved barrier spit beach where the water from the stream flows around the eastern end of the beach.
The stones on the beach are neatly arranged in a series of flat-topped deposits, called storm berms that are stacked on each other. If you look at the beach carefully you will see that each berm has a steeper lower slope, a flatter upper slope, and a line of seaweed and other debris along its top edge. The next higher berm then repeats the shape: steeper lower, flatter higher, with debris on top. A straight-on view of the beach face shows another interesting feature. In the lower, steeper part of each deposit the stones are slightly smaller than the stones in the upper, flatter part of the deposit. Then, above the line of seaweed, the lower part of the next deposit again has smaller stones. The differences are subtle, but consistent all along the length of the beach. Furthermore, the stones on the steeper, lower slope are quite round, whereas there are several flat stones on the flatter top area.
Each storm berm represents a deposit from a single storm. As the waves break, they release enough energy to scour rocks from the base of the beach and throw them up on the shore. As the tide increases, the waves reach higher and higher levels, pushing stones, seaweed, and driftwood up the beach. As each wave crashes it propels large and small stones up the beach, but as it recedes, it has less energy and can only pull the smaller and rounder stones back down the slope. In this way, the larger, flatter stones are sorted out from the smaller, rounder ones, ending up at the top of the deposit. As the height of the storm passes and the tide begins to fall, the large stones and floating seaweed are stranded at the height of the deposit.
If the next storm is larger than the first one, then the older berm will be wiped out and the stones will be re-formed into the new one. Only the deposit from the largest storm will be preserved. On the other hand, if the next storm is smaller than the first one, only the lower part of the first berm will be affected, and the upper part will be preserved. In this case, the younger, lower berm will rest partway up the older, higher berm. On this beach we found that there were at least four berms preserved, with the highest one being the oldest, and the lowest one being the youngest. Most storms of the magnitude to create berms occur in the winter months. The highest beam maybe be years old and reflect the more violent storm the beach has ever seen.
So what does the beach tells us? First the continental glacier originally deposited the stones that now make up the beach here. Then the waves acting on the glacial deposit washed the mud and sand into deeper water, leaving behind a "clean" deposit of stones. Over time, as the stones have rolled up and down the beach, they have become rounded and polished. Solid bedrock anchors the end of the beach, keeping the stones in a pocket. The shape of the beach changes when storms rearrange the stones on the beach into berms. The largest storms reconfigure the entire beach, whereas smaller storms may only affect the lower portions. Each storm is unique so it leaves a characteristic berm shape, with a lower sloped beach and a higher flatter top. Beaches are dynamic systems that are continually changing. This small pocket beach is one of many on the Fundy coast. Each one has a similar story, although the details may be different.
At the posted coordinates you are looking up at beach berms that were formed by the recent storms. It should appear as a series of steps. It is best to visit this earthcache during low to mid tide, that way you will see the greatest development. To log this Earthcache: You must post a photo of you and your GPS on the beach and then send an e-mail describing number of berms and their height as well as any evidence of how large the biggest storm might have been in the recent past. . Please begin your e-mail with the name of the earthcache and make sure your log includes the number of people in your group.
Remember this is an earthcache so there is no container just an earth science lesson at an amazing natural feature. In your log please take the time to describe what you find special about this beach.
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