6/28/16 Report - How Water Sorts Things On The Beach. Gold and Emerald Finds.

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

Gold and Emerald Ring and Gold Chain.

If you hunt where older people predominate you won't find nearly as much.  They don't do cartwheels or  dive for volleyballs, but they do lose some things.  The young people have been wearing more white gold, while the older people are still wearing a good bit of their older yellow gold.  The emerald ring is 14K, and the chain is 10K.  Both are recent finds.

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A week or so ago I said I would explain why some days there are shells on the beach and other days not.  A lot of the same principles apply to coins.  I decided that I would have to repeat some things so you'd have some important background information.

As you would suspect, it takes more water velocity to move some items that it takes to move others. It isn't all about size or weight.  Density and shape are two important factors that I've discussed in the past.

While objects will be transported by water moving at a given velocity, it takes more velocity to dislodge settled particles and get them moving than it takes to keep them moving.

The velocity required to dislodge particles and get them moving is what I have referred to as the "trigger point."  That isn't the scientific term.  It is just the term I use.

Clay makes a good example.  It consists of very fine particles that transport very easily in water when suspended, but due to what I'll simply call the "stickiness," it takes a good bit more force to dislodge the clay particles to get them moving.

Different objects, in addition to having different trigger points, also have different "drop" points. When the water slows, there is a point when a particle will drop out or settle.  The same thing happens with objects.  When objects are being moved by a current, they will "drop" out, or settle, when the water slows enough.

The water has to be very calm before fine clay particles drop out, for example, while sand drops out while the water is moving a little more rapidly, and pebbles will stop moving when the water is moving still faster.

Below is one of the most helpful illustrations that I have seen.  It sums up a lot of what I just said.

In the illustration, the straight red line between the other two red lines shows the increasing velocity required to move larger particles and objects when a laminar current is assumed and other factors are not taken into account.

I won't try to explain what laminar flow is other than to say that it is a simple straight parallel flow. Look up "laminar flow" if you want.

The curved red line to the right of the straight line shows that pebbles are moved when the water velocity reaches near 100 cm/s.  The same line curves to the left as particle size decreases because it requires less water velocity to move smaller particles such as sand.  It then curves back to the right again because it requires faster water to get silt and clay moving.

The curved red line to the right of the straight line on the graph shows it takes more water velocity to move clay than pebbles even though pebbles are much larger than particles of clay.

The most important thing to get is that objects such as sand, coins, rings and all kinds of things, have different trigger points and require different amounts of water force to get them moving.  They also have different "drop" points, which is when they drop out of transport and settle on the surface.

Fine sand requires less current to get it moving and keep it moving than coarse sand or shells, but fine sand keeps moving as the water slows and shells drop out of transport.

Water flows up onto the beach, and then flows back down again.  When it washes straight up onto the beach, it washes back down the same path.  Sometimes an incoming flow hits the backwash, which stops the flow, and items drop out.

Lets say the water is moving up the slope of the beach fast enough to move the sand up the slope.  As the water gets higher on the slope, the water slows and the sand is deposited.  If the water is not moving fast enough to move the shells, then more sand gets deposited on the beach.  If on the other hand the water is moving fast enough to move both sand and shells, the sand might get moved farther up the slope than the shells, but if the water slows enough to drop the shells, but retreats fast enough to take the sand back down with, you will be left with a shell pile.

There are times, as we know, that the water washes onto the beach at an angle rather than straight up onto the beach.  When that happens, it does not slow so much at the peak.  The water also makes an arc, slicing onto and off of the beach, without being slowed so much.

The water moves onto the beach and back down with each wave, but there are also the tidal cycles to take into a account, and they are very important.  And there are still other things as well, such as where the waves are crashing.   It is not laminar flow (sorry if you did not look it up), but turbulent flow.

I ll stop there for today.  There are other important and interesting factors that come into play at different times, such as how compact the sand is.  I'll probably pick up with some of those topics some other time.

Much of what I said today I've said before, but I did add some.

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There is still no tropical weather of any significance.  And we still have a small surf.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/13/14 Report - Reasons to Explore Zinc Penny Dip, Santa Maria Found, Bell of the Santa Maria, Space Race Archaeology

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



Pile of Recently Dug Corroded Coins.
 

Some think the wreck of Columbus' sunken flagship, the Santa Maria, has been found just north of  Haiti.  Permission is being sought to conduct an extensive archaeological survey.

Here is the link for more of that story.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/santa-maria-found-wreck-may-be-columbus-sunken-flagship-n103766


The bell of the Santa Maria, if that is indeed what it is, has been the subject of a battle between Portugal and Spain going back to 2003/2004.   The bell was supposedly being returned to Spain from the New World when the ship carrying the bell sank in Portuguese waters.

Spain claimed that the bell was stolen from them when it was recovered by a diver, and the bell was returned to Spain in 2004.  I haven't seen anything more recent on that. 

It seems there are questions not only about who should own the bell but also if it is indeed the bell of the Santa Maria.  That might be why there appears to have been no resolution to the issue, at least not that I can find.

Here is a link from 2004.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/5257041#.U3GQGSDD8VQ

The story of the bell is old news but I never found out what finally happened to it or if it was proven to be the bell from the Santa Maria.



Archaeologists are surveying the deteriorating structures of the early days of the Space Race at Cape Canaveral.

http://archaeology.org/news/2101-140512-cape-canaveral-space



Above is a pile of coins recently recovered from the water.  It isn't hard to tell that they were exposed to salt water.  

That is the kind of thing you'll often find between a sand bar and the beach when the dip still contains too much loose sand and shells.  Most better targets will be deeper in a location like that.

You'll also notice some green encrusted coins in that pile, and a little junk flag pendant in the middle.

The pennies are not worth the effort, but they can provide important information.  These pennies were not recent drops but had accumulated and been sifted and sorted.  These pennies told me that there was a good bit of activity in that general area and as a result things were lost nearby in good numbers.  That is good information.  The question is then, how much deeper or in which direction would you need to go to get out of the pennies and into concentrations of better items.

Besides the information they provide about other possible targets, another reason to not ignore concentrations of finds like this, is that there can be better items in with the pennies.

Dips that contain loosely packed sand and shells and zinc pennies often also contain things like watches.  This one did - two in fact.

Most importantly, this concentration of pennies told me that better targets were probably nearby and, most likely, in good concentrations.  The better items would be deeper and perhaps off to one side or another.  If I was able to use a blower in that area to remove the loose sand, I'm certain a good number of better items would have been found.  As it was, I couldn't move the necessary amount of sand and am waiting for Mother Nature to do the job.  It might happen or it might not.  It depends upon which direction the sand moves.  In any case, I know there is one very promising spot if and when the window finally opens.

Junk Flag Charm.

I'll clean up the watches and get a photo of them.  Both seem to be in good working order.

The pennies went through a quick tumbling to remove some of the crust and corrosion.

I'm actually more interested in what is under all of the remaining sand.

Anyone recognize the flag right off?


On the Treasure Coast today we are near a full moon and the tides are more significant again.  The wind, however, is pretty directly out of the East, and the surf is up a little, to around three or four feet.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net