Strand plain
Belt of sand along a shoreline
A strand plain or strandplain is a broad belt of sand along a shoreline with a surface exhibiting well-defined parallel or semi-parallel sand ridges separated by shallow swales. A strand plain differs from a barrier island in that it lacks either the lagoons or tidal marshes that separate a barrier island from the shoreline to which the strand plain is directly attached. Also, the tidal channels and inlets which cut through barrier islands are absent. Strand plains typically are created by the redistribution by waves and longshore currents of coarse sediment on either side of a river mouth. Thus, they are part of one type of wave-dominated delta.
Examples of strand plains:
- Western Louisiana
- Eastern Texas
- West coast of Namibia
- South-east and south-west coasts of Australia, and in the Gulf of Carpentaria
- Letea and Caraorman, Danube Delta, Romania
- Kustvlakte, Suriname
- Cayo Costa, Florida
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Strand plain”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- CaravelasStrandplain1.jpg by ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center, Public domain
- Paleogeografie West Nederland 100nC.svg by Vos, P. & S. de Vries, CC0
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