Thursday, August 2, 2012

8/2/12 Report - Tropical Depression and Changing Coast Lines


Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.


Tropical Depression 5 (NOAA, NHC)
We now have a tropical depression in the Atlantic.  The disturbance that I've been talking about has formed, however according to present predictions, it is expected to go south of Cuba, so won't be a threat to us on the Treasure Coast.

We've had a full moon lately, which along with the west winds has been causing some good low tides and a lot of accessible area to detect.  Unfortunately it is very sandy most everywhere. 

It is good weather for water hunting even though beach conditions are not that good.
  
Low tide today will be about 3 PM.

Seas will remain flat today and for the next several days.


Coastal archaeological sites are being eroded.  That is no surprise.  It has been going on for thousands of years.  Florida was once three times bigger than today.

This particular article is about California, but the same thing happens to all coastal areas around the world, including here on the Treasure Coast.

Here is the article about eroding coastal archaeological sites.
http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2012/07/29/rising-seas-threaten-californias-coastal-past/

If you want to find older items, anything from a few months old to centuries older, take a look at eroded areas.  Think about how the cliffs and dunes are eroding and how items fall  to the base of the cliff and then are either moved towards the water or covered again for a while until they are uncovered again.

Understanding how items are moved and distributed on a beach is one thing that will help you increase increase your  finds.   I've talked about much of that in the past.

There will often be a layer or multiple layers of productive sand at certain areas where people were active in the past.  Eventually those areas behind the beach will be eroded and items slide or drop down the face of the dunes where they will remain until they are moved by high waters or covered up again.


Here is a map from the U. S. Geological Survey (Thanks tax-payers.) showing how much Florida has changed. 

It was once smaller and once three times its current size.  Looks like the coast line was changing very dramatically long before cars and factories were on the scene.
Here are some photos of the Ruck's Pit clam material that one reader of this blog is trying to sell.  I mentioned it yesterday. 

Looks like lots of fun, if you want to dig them out. Nice big clumps with big clams and who knows what else. Like I said, I usually don't do this type of thing, but he needs the money.

If you want to learn more about the world famous Ruck's Pit clams, I posted a link to information yesterday.


 

I was looking at the Spanish Colonial coins offered for sale on eBay this morning, and there sure are a lot of fakes.  There were coins that were so bad that the king, date, denomination and other things simply didn't match.   The same seller was selling more than one of those fake coins, but there were other fakes for sell too.  Too many.  Watch out.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net