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Breaching in a wave‐dominated barrier spit: The trabucador bar (north‐eastern spanish coast)
Author(s) -
SánchezArcilla Agustín,
Jiménez José A.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
earth surface processes and landforms
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.294
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1096-9837
pISSN - 0197-9337
DOI - 10.1002/esp.3290190602
Subject(s) - overwash , geology , subaerial , sediment transport , barrier island , storm , erosion , submarine pipeline , oceanography , sediment , geomorphology , coastal erosion , bay , hydrology (agriculture) , shore , geotechnical engineering , geochemistry
The Trabucador Bar is a barrier coast linking the main lobe of the Ebro Delta with its southern spit. This coastal stretch, which may be considered as a microtidal transgressive barrier, is the most vulnerable area of the deltaic coast to storm‐induced geomorphologic changes. During the second week of October 1990 a severe storm affected the Ebro Delta causing serious erosion, in which the Trabucador Bar was one of the most damaged zones. A breach 800 m long and with a maximum depth of 0·4 m below the mean water level was created. During the breaching process approximately 70 000 m 3 of sand were removed from the subaerial barrier in a few hours. Three factors are normally responsible for the loss of sediment, longshore transport gradient, offshore transport and overwash processes, most of the eroded sediment (60 000 m 3 ) was transported towards the inner bay due to overwash processes. The post‐storm recovery of the zone was slow and far from complete, as the breach remained a conduit for onshore sediment transport under a regime of breaking and reforming waves. An artificial dune was subsequently constructed to close the breach and thus allow beachface recovery.