Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
There were surfers catching some nice waves at Wabasso yesterday but the rides were short because the waves were breaking right in front of the beach.
There is so much turmoil where the waves break and it is so difficult to see exactly what is going on there, that it is hard to figure it all out. It was only recently when I saw those pictures that showed waves sucking sand that I learned about that.
I've talked about how the recently found escudos appear to be in such great condition, and I've also talked about and shown the rocks where they were found. It might seem that unless the coins were hidden in the cracks, crevices and holes where they would be protected, that they would show a lot more damage. That may or may not be true. It is possible that they were under enough sand to protect them even if they were not hiding in cracks or holes. Remember, there is normally two to four feet of sand over the rocks along there.
Above is a crude diagram that I scribbled. Maybe it will help some.
What I am showing, top to bottom, is the water level just in front of the beach, and something like three or four feet below, the irregular rock surface. The brown lines represent various levels of sand. The red/orange dots represent coins.
The coins tend to settle as the sand moves. One question is how much the sand in the holes move. I'd say that it is not much.
If the sand is at level A, all the rocks and coins are covered by a good amount of sand. As long as that amount of sand remains on top of the coins, they will be relatively stationary and very well protected.
If the sand between A and G is moved by erosion or whatever, the coin that was in that layer will settle on the next layer down. It might then get covered by a layer of sand whenever sand moves back over it. The coin also could move with the sand to some extent.
If the sand is removed so that C represents the new surface, some of the rocks will then be visible. In this illustration the uncovered rocks would be those to the right side of the diagram.
Also, if the new level of sand was at C, then the top coin might end up sitting very close to the other coin that was on the rock below it.
Instead of being a straight line though, you'd probably see some sand in the dips on the more protected side, maybe like that shown at H.
How deeply the holes might be emptied is hard to say. I feel that the sand in those holes would be packed fairly well and remain very stable. I think the holes would protect anything in them from most of the turbulence. It would seem to me it would take a lot to clean out those holes, and as long as the holes are filled with sand, coins could not sink into the bottom of the hole, but would only sink as deep as the undisturbed sand.
To put it another way, I think it would take something unusual (not impossible) for a coin to find its way to the bottom of a deep and narrow hole. I think the sediment in such a hole would be very stable. Of course, sand would come out much easier than a coin.
We are dealing with a lot of unknowns here. I am just trying to advance my understanding of this turbulent and chaotic area a little.
I can understand how water forcefully propelled downward by blowers might clean out the holes and cracks, but the question is if natural forces could clean out the cracks and holes. Could crashing waves clean out those holes.
That is the part of the beach that is the most chaotic and the most difficult to observe and understand.
We know that coins have been down there for three hundred years. One fact that stands out to me is that I've never seen those rocks exposed in the last few decades. I could have easily missed that though, since I don't visit that area all the time, and I was not there when we had the big hurricanes of 2001. If any of you were there after Francis or Jeane, did you see the rocks exposed there at all? Have you ever seen the rocks exposed there as the result of natural forces?
There are places on the Treasure Coast where the rocks are normally exposed. Walton Rocks is one. Walton Rocks was named that at least a century ago, so I assume that hasn't changed much.
I just read the following, We are still emerging from that ice age, and sea level has been rising at highly variable rates over the last 20,000 years; during the past century, the rate of sea level rise has averaged 10-15 centimeters per century worldwide. If that is right, three hundred years ago the sea level would have been about a foot and a half lower, and if everything else was the same, the beach would have been farther east. Also from the look of the dunes and how they have to continually renourish the area, I'd also guess that the beach was farther to the east three hundred years ago. That means the rocks would have been more covered back then, and even in recent years I have not seen them exposed.
I hope that is helpful. It helps me to think it through.
In this discussion I mentioned a number of things that I'm pretty confident about as well as some things that I don't know about. Raising good questions helps find answers.
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Also, if the new level of sand was at C, then the top coin might end up sitting very close to the other coin that was on the rock below it.
Instead of being a straight line though, you'd probably see some sand in the dips on the more protected side, maybe like that shown at H.
How deeply the holes might be emptied is hard to say. I feel that the sand in those holes would be packed fairly well and remain very stable. I think the holes would protect anything in them from most of the turbulence. It would seem to me it would take a lot to clean out those holes, and as long as the holes are filled with sand, coins could not sink into the bottom of the hole, but would only sink as deep as the undisturbed sand.
To put it another way, I think it would take something unusual (not impossible) for a coin to find its way to the bottom of a deep and narrow hole. I think the sediment in such a hole would be very stable. Of course, sand would come out much easier than a coin.
We are dealing with a lot of unknowns here. I am just trying to advance my understanding of this turbulent and chaotic area a little.
I can understand how water forcefully propelled downward by blowers might clean out the holes and cracks, but the question is if natural forces could clean out the cracks and holes. Could crashing waves clean out those holes.
That is the part of the beach that is the most chaotic and the most difficult to observe and understand.
We know that coins have been down there for three hundred years. One fact that stands out to me is that I've never seen those rocks exposed in the last few decades. I could have easily missed that though, since I don't visit that area all the time, and I was not there when we had the big hurricanes of 2001. If any of you were there after Francis or Jeane, did you see the rocks exposed there at all? Have you ever seen the rocks exposed there as the result of natural forces?
There are places on the Treasure Coast where the rocks are normally exposed. Walton Rocks is one. Walton Rocks was named that at least a century ago, so I assume that hasn't changed much.
I just read the following, We are still emerging from that ice age, and sea level has been rising at highly variable rates over the last 20,000 years; during the past century, the rate of sea level rise has averaged 10-15 centimeters per century worldwide. If that is right, three hundred years ago the sea level would have been about a foot and a half lower, and if everything else was the same, the beach would have been farther east. Also from the look of the dunes and how they have to continually renourish the area, I'd also guess that the beach was farther to the east three hundred years ago. That means the rocks would have been more covered back then, and even in recent years I have not seen them exposed.
I hope that is helpful. It helps me to think it through.
In this discussion I mentioned a number of things that I'm pretty confident about as well as some things that I don't know about. Raising good questions helps find answers.
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One thing I should have mentioned yesterday is the lightning. As the thunder showers move through, there was frequent lightning. That will probably be the case for a few days. Be careful.
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A mysterious wooden idol found in a Russian peat bog has been dated to 11,000 years ago - and contains a code no one can decipher.
The Shigir Idol is twice as old as the Pyramids and Stonehenge - and is by far the oldest wooden structure in the world.
Even more mysteriously, it is covered in what experts describe as ‘encrypted code’ - a message from a lost civilisation. ..
Here is the link.
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A mysterious wooden idol found in a Russian peat bog has been dated to 11,000 years ago - and contains a code no one can decipher.
The Shigir Idol is twice as old as the Pyramids and Stonehenge - and is by far the oldest wooden structure in the world.
Even more mysteriously, it is covered in what experts describe as ‘encrypted code’ - a message from a lost civilisation. ..
Here is the link.
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Hurricane Fred has formed, but it is closer to Africa than us and expected to dissipate before reaching mid Atlantic.
We'll have some pretty big tides for a few days.
Yesterday I showed what a lot of the Treasure Coast beaches looked like. I don't expect any big change on that today.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
