Shingle beach

A shingle beach (also referred to as rocky beach or pebble beach) is a beach which is armoured with pebbles or small- to medium-sized cobbles (as opposed to fine sand). Typically, the stone composition may grade from characteristic sizes ranging from 2 to 200 millimetres (0.1 to 7.9 in) diameter.

Shingle beach at Torrisdale Bay, Argyll and Bute, Scotland

While this beach landform is most commonly found in Europe, examples are found in Bahrain, North America and a number of other world regions, such as the west coast of New Zealand's South Island, where they are associated with the shingle fans of braided rivers. Though created at shorelines, post-glacial rebound can raise shingle beaches as high as 200 metres (660 ft) above sea level, as on the High Coast in Sweden.

The ecosystems formed by this unique association of rock and sand allow colonization by a variety of rare and endangered species.^[1]

Formation

Shingle beaches are typically steep, because the waves easily flow through the coarse, porous surface of the beach, decreasing the effect of backwash erosion and increasing the formation of sediment into a steeply sloping beach.^[2]

Tourism

Shingle beaches are rare, made up of thousands of smooth rocks with varying geological qualities. The ocean naturally smooths the various rocks over time with crashing waves. Shingle beaches are popular for the varying rock types that can be found.

Examples

Alby, Sweden
Birdling's Flat, New Zealand
Brighton, England
Chesil Beach, England
Dungeness, England
Humarock, Scituate, Massachusetts
Egypt Beach, Scituate, MA United States
Hawar Islands, Bahrain
Herne Bay, England
Nice, France
Osmussaar, Estonia
Slapton Sands, England
Short Beach, Oregon, U.S.
Southsea, England
The Stade, England
Sõrve Peninsula, Estonia
Zrće, Croatia
Jaz Beach, Montenegro

References

^ UK's rare shingle beaches at risk, Alex Kirby, BBC News Online, June 3, 2003
^ Easterbrook, Don J. Surface Processes and Landforms. 1999 Prentice-Hall Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ

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Management	Accretion Coastal management Integrated coastal zone management Submersion
Related	Bulkhead line Coastal engineering Grain size boulder clay cobble granule gravel pebble sand shingle silt Intertidal zone Littoral zone Physical oceanography Region of freshwater influence River plume
Category

Shingle beach

Formation

Tourism

Examples

See also

References

Further reading