Newport Beach is one of the top tourist destinations in Orange County. it is also where many millionaires come to buy beachfront property. Waves from the ocean can erode the beaches and it can also replenish them. To help protect the beach areas, a series of breakwater jetties were built. Jetties are long, thin strips of man made land that break up waves. Most breakwater jetties are built using large rocks. The jagged rocks, help break up the waves hence the name breakwaters. The official name of these small jetties along the coast are groynes and almost always, groynes can actually grow due to the sediment being carried by the water.
These groynes are key to protect the coast from too much erosion. Thousands of waves hit the unites coastline here everyday. It's unique because it sticks out from the any of the other land that it surrounds. Its more in the ocean than Huntington Beach or Laguna Beach. The groynes locations are key into protecting the beaches.
Waves usually hit the beach at an angle. This means, they are never perpendicular to the beach. By hitting the beach at an angle, they can break up the sand and move it down or up a beach in a matter of a few hours. YES a few hours. That's how fast beaches can erode. By putting these groynes in place, they help stop waves in moving so much sand and sediment away from the coastline. If this groyne wasn't here, then the beach would have been significantly smaller and likely would have led to costal flooding during high tide and the very least.
Works Cited
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groyne
https://www.crd.bc.ca/education/our-environment/geology-processes/coastal-sediment
TO LOG A FIND ON THIS CACHE YOU MUST GIVE ME THE CORECT ANSWERS. YOU CAN CONTACT ME THROUGH MY EMAIL OR THE GEOCACHING MESSAGE CENTER. ANY INCORRECT ANSWERS WILL RESULT IN A DELETED LOG
1. "Newport Beach Erosion Control" on the first line of your email AND list all geocaching names of your party so I can match your answers to them. Note, this IS cheating as only the person who sent their answers has learned something, while the others get a "free ride". It's not fair to others. If you all want to learn something, I would prefer each cacher send me individual emails in the spirt of earthcaching.
2. How many groynes are protecting the coastline?
3. What compass direction are the waves coming from?
4. What side of these groynes do you see the highest wave action? What side do you see the lowest? Explain why this might be.
5. What side of the these groynes do you see the most sediment (sand)? What side do you see the lowest? Explain why this might be.