Tuesday, April 4, 2017

4/4/17 Report - Ship Remains Dated to 17th Century. Complexities of Beach Erosion.


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

Jupiter Beach.
Jupiter Beach, as you can see above, has tons and tons of new sand.

Thanks to Joe D. for the photo.

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Uncovered Ship Remains Buried Near Alexandria Virginia.
Source: See WTOP link below.

... Skolnik said some of the earliest tree rings from the ship are from 1603 — four years before John Smith showed up in Jamestown and 17 years before the Pilgrims showed up in Massachusetts.
“So the wood in the ship comes from a time of early American history that even predates the earliest permanent English settlements here in the New World,” he said.
But the ship was sunk on purpose by early Alexandrians.
He said documentary records show between 1788 and 1796, the ship went from being a vessel to being buried...
Here is the link for the rest of the article.

http://wtop.com/alexandria/2017/04/uncovering-mystery-behind-alexandria-waterfronts-18th-century-ship/slide/6/

They dated this ship by looking at the tree rings on the lumber.

Notice the number and size of the rods.

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Yesterday I posted a list of ten factors that contribute to beach erosion.  Predicting erosion is complicated by not only the number of factors, but also how quickly those factors can change.  Furthermore, there are interactions.  For example, wave size interacts with tides.  Big waves are most effective when the tides are high.  So the timing of both factors as they relate to each other is important.

Water force is obviously the primary factor that causes sand and other items such as coins to move.  Many of the factors change the force of water at different locations.

The same force of water will move one type of object but not another, therefore you get separation or sifting of objects.

Erosion is a good sign and always present during the very best beach conditions, but beach old coins sometimes appear on the beach when there is no erosion.  I explain that more some day.

One complication is that the direction of water from an individual wave will wash up and then back down the beach, so the force of water from each wave changes direction.  Not only does the direction of the force change, but  the amount of force also changes as the wave goes up and down the beach. That might be obvious enough, but figuring out how the sand and other objects move is more complicated.

Another complication is that each wave interacts with other waves.  The outgoing water from one wave will hit the incoming water from the next wave.  The force from both waves is changed when they interact.  When outgoing water hits the incoming water from the next wave, temporary much of the force is lost at that point.

I'll continue with this some other day.

Here is a little puzzle.

Coins and other objects can actually move in the opposite direction of the water rushing over and around them.  Think about how that might happen.  I actually explained that once before.

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If you have never seen the Northern Lights before, you might want to check it out.  For me, it is something that I'll never forget.

http://blog.spiritdaily.com/news-links/northern-lights-in-real-time

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Yesterday the wind picked up in the afternoon and we had some good southerly winds.  I wish I'd get a chance to get out today to check out one of my spots that gets hit better by southerly winds.  Perhaps tomorrow.

We're supposed to get a cold front later this week.  It doesn't look like it will increase the surf though.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net