Coastlines of the Eastern Arctic

A computer approach was developed and used to analyse the Characteristics of coastlines present in the eastern Arctic. Results of this analysis indicate that: 1) almost 75% of all coastlines include a beach; 2)backshores are mostly steep and made up of bedrock; 3) beaches are made up mostly of coarse sediments; 4) the two most abundant types of coastal zones consist of steep rocky backshores without beach, and steep rocky backshores with colluvium and continuous boulder belches; 5) the average slope of backshores and the size of the dominant beach sediment decrease towards the north; 6) fetch has little influence on coastal characteristics; and 7) coastal characteristics are determined primarily by the physiography of the adjacent land and by the nature of backshores.