7/3/20 Report - EXCITING Gold Find Made on Douglas Beach Wreck. Biker Ring Find. Lessons From Liquefaction and Water Lenses.

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

Gold Pelican of Piety Artifact
Found by Captain Bonnie Schubert

If you've been reading this blog very long you might remember reading Laura Strolia's research concerning the Pelican of Piety artifact that was found by Captain Bonnie Schubert on the Douglas Beach wreck site in 2010.  As you can see from the photo above, it was missing a wing.  Well, ten years later, in 2020, Captain Henry Jones and 1st mate Tracy Newman along with Brian Fisher working on the M/V Perfect Day, found the missing wing, along with an attached segment of chain and connecting ring.

Missing Wing Found by Captain Jones and Crew of M/V Perfect Day.

Queens Jewels LLC Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez.

Thanks to Captain Jonah for sending me this news.

For Laura Strolia's research and interpretation of the Pelican of Piety artifact, see the following web site.

 https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2012/11/11412-more-revealed-on-pelican-in-piety.html 

If you want to read more about the Pelican of Piety artifact, use the search box and do a search of this blog.



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Alberto S. found this stainless steel biker ring about 10 inches deep.

Stainless Steel Biker Ring

Find and Photo by Alberto S.

Alberto also said, I also found that the heat was unbearable, good thing I carried some water with me, 2 bottles which was not good enough for a 2 hour hunt. 

If you are working out on the beach these days, be sure to take water along with you.

Thanks for sharing Alberto.

---

People talk about the sun coming up or going down.  That is how they see it.  There is nothing wrong with describing it that way - unless you really want understand or describe what is really going on.  In that case, you might want to talk about how the earth moves relative to the sun.

For a long time I've been trying to move the discussion away from objects sinking in the sand.  They do sink, at times, but it is not like an item at rest will be drawn by the force of gravity alone to lower levels, which is how I would picture objects described as sinking.  It has a lot to do with the movement of the sand, which might to the eye seem relatively stationary.

The sand can move in a very obvious or very subtle way.  Sometimes it is easy to see it moving and sometimes not so much.

As you can see from the above illustration, which really gives a good description of one way that items are sorted and resorted in wet sand, resulting in stratification of layers with successive waves of pore pressure changes.

I'll leave it at that for today.  I've been trying to put together a good description of how items become stratified (you might say sink) in wet sand, but it is fairly complex and I'm going to have to invent my own descriptions and illustrations.  None of the experiments that I've seen take into account forces such as crashing waves, which is critical in many cases. That is just one of several important factors.  A crashing wave, like the passing waves shown in the above illustration, changes the pore pressure between grains.  Think about how a pressure hose can be use to set a dock pier.  The hose creates turbulence and separates grains to create a hole into which the pier can be set.

Anyhow, I'll try to elaborate on that more in future posts.

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The surf is really flat on the Treasure Coast and there are no signs of storms forming.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/7/19 Report - The Feversham and Other Shipwrecks. Houses Sinking. Past and Present. Higher Surf Coming.

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

Source: underwatercouncil.com.  See full link below.

.
There was a lot in the recently concluded Sedwick Coins auction that was from the Feversham wreck.  I hadn't heard of that one, so looked it up.  In the process I found an interesting article.  Here is an excerpt.

The popularity of recreational scuba diving has resulted in many shipwrecks being discovered along Nova Scotia, Canada’s coastline over the past forty years. Some divers have had the opportunity to discover and salvage long lost treasures from shipwrecks such as the HMS Feversham (lost in 1711), La Chameau (lost in 1725), HMS Tilbury (lost in 1757), and Auguste (lost in 1761). All of these have proven to hold valuable cargos of silver and gold. These recovery efforts in Nova Scotia stand in sharp contrast to many areas in the world where it has become increasingly difficult from a legal standpoint for recreational and professional salvage and commercial divers to recover artifacts and treasures they may find while exploring underwater. (See Sidebar, “Arguments Against Amateurs.”...

And here is the link for more.

http://www.underwatercouncil.com/Newsletters/UNESCO/Immersed%20Article.pdf


As it turns out the Feversham was lost only four years before the 1715 Fleet.  Note the gold/emerald ring in the photo that looks very much like one discovered on the Treasure Coast.

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"Sustainable" Homes Sinking.

These sustainable homes were built on Marco Island in 1980, but erosion has left them stranded.

The structures were part of a six-building complex with solar power and a water-collecting system.

They were beachfront property when built in the 1980s.

Erosion, hastened by hurricanes and storms, has destroyed the domes.

Here is the link for more about that.

https://weather.com/news/news/2019-11-06-dome-homes-florida-disappearing-beach-erosion-future

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When your eyesight grows dim from time you can see what others can't.  Where others see a modern steel building and an empty grassy spot beside, you see a spreading oak tree and an old black barn with weathered cracking boards where children waited for the bus every morning.  Where others see old houses, you see brand new homes surrounded by green yards carved out of farm fields and the children who first laughed and played there.  Where others see a spreading school house with twelve  rooms, a cafeteria, gym and a parking lot where the ballfield used to be, you see a four room schoolhouse with worn wooden floors and wooden desks liberally carved with initials and other art work  carved over the years by the more raucous children going back to your parent's generation, not to mention the scary boiler down stairs that was kept going by the janitor that lived across the road.

There are many things that only you know.  Only you know where the fuzzy little duck you won at the county fair ate the mushroom beside the pussy willow tree and died.  You know how cried you about that.  You know how your grandpa entered the church every week, turned right inside the door and placed his hat with hats with a long line hats worn by the other men on the shelf above the coat rack before exchanging pleasantries with the other men before making their way upstairs to the sanctuary.  You know where the spring house used to be and where the mint grew in the valley by the creek.

There are sacred places.  They are frozen in time.  They are the places where your parents and grandparents are still young even though you are old.  They are the places where the past lives on as strongly as the present.

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November is often a good month for detecting.  Everyone knows about the legendary Thanksgiving storm that uncovered treasures along much of the Treasure Coast.  It is the month when cold fronts start coming through.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

One will be coming through soon.  The wind will be turning tomorrow and we're supposed to get some higher surf Saturday.  Also it looks like another bump in the surf is predicted for Wednesday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/29/17 Report - Treasure Coast Beach Conditions. Civil War Submarine. Peru's History. Snooping. Tropical Storm Situation.

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

John Brooks Beach This Morning Just Before Low Tide.

I took a look at a few beaches this morning to see what was going on.  As you can see from the picture above, the surf was near flat.

High Tie Line Showing Shells Pushed Up By Recent High Tide.

Mushy Beach Front North of John Brooks.

John Brooks Looking North.

The beaches in the area of John Brooks were mushy.  In the above picture you can see the old cut and the new lighter colored sand that accumulated in front of the cut.

Detectorist This Morning At Fredreck Douglas.

This detectorist got caught by the Treasure Guide Cam this morning around low tide.

Overall, beach detecting conditions remain poor.

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Researchers say they’ve solved one of the most enduring mysteries of the American Civil War: what caused the puzzling demise of the H.L. Hunley, the first combat submarine in history to sink an enemy warship...

It looks like the explosion that sank the USS Housatonic could have also been responsible for the sinking of the Hunley.

Here is the link for more about that.

http://www.nature.com/news/scientists-solve-mystery-of-us-civil-war-submarine-1.22447

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Archaeologists exploring Peru’s pre-Colombian past recently unearthed a glimpse of a less prominent chapter in the Andean country’s history - the remains of 16 Chinese labourers who toiled in the country over 100 years ago...

Here is that link.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-peru-archaeology-idUKKCN1B504L?il=0

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Google’s trademark mobile phone may be appropriately named, the “Android.” Some privacy experts warn that consumers are being spied on, fleeced by intrusive advertisers, and their whereabouts tracked, all through cell phones.

Android phone users beware.

Google has effectively turned millions of its users’ smartphones into listening devices that can record and store conversations not meant for Google’s ears...

Here is that link.

http://www.wnd.com/2017/08/how-google-secretly-records-your-private-conversations/print/

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Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Harvey is going to go north, as is Ten.  The one that has the best chance of affecting us is still over by the Canary Islands.

There is one day left to respond to the most recent poll.

Come together to support relief efforts in Texas.  

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/31/17 Report - Shipwreck Sinking and Debris Dispersion Model. Detector Depth and Finding Cobs. 103 Gram Meteorite Find.

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

103 Gram Meteorite Found by SuperRick with Metal Detector
Photo by SuperRick.

We don't have great meteorite hunting in Florida, but they can be found.  I for one don't know if I ever found one or not.  I don't know enough about them to know for sure. Some Florida people have told me that they did find meteorites.

Rick thought the one above (which was not found in Florida)  was a "cold" meteorite, which means that it was not found in a known meteorite area, but then another fellow said he found one in the same area. When it comes to meterorites, a "cold find" is a find made where none had been found before.  It is something like finding a shipwreck cob where there is no known shipwreck and where cobs have not been found before.  That is very different from hunting on a well known shipwreck beach.  It makes the odds much bigger against you, and it makes the find potentially very significant.

Here is the link to SuperRick's YouTube video about the meterorite find.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vva01ePYkg&t=14s

You might remember the big meteorite auction that I mentioned not long ago.  Some meteorites can be worth a lot.

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Here is an excellent scientific article on shipwreck sinkings and the formation of the debris field.

On the Hydromechanics of Vessels and Debris Fields During Sinking Events by Sean Kery.

Here is the abstract.

When a vessel leaves the surface and plunges to the seabed, a lot of things can happen that will affect its orientation and position on the seabed and the creation and distribution of the debris field. Crushing and catastrophic implosion due to the rapidly increasing hydrostatic pressure has been noted on portions of many wrecks. Extensive damage due to bottom impact and subsequent motions have also been observed and documented. This paper describes the successful numerical modeling of the sinking of several historic vessels. One was in deep water and another in shallow water. In both cases it was possible for the simulation to replicate important details of the debris field. Further work is planned to help explain some of the taphonomy observed as the wreck decays over time as it is acted on by bottom currents, benthic storms and in the shallow case storm waves. 

This is not light reading.

http://www.sname.org/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=a7f10ad9-1b65-03ed-757b-7be8daa49310

When thinking about how a ship breaks up and debris gets distributed, here are a few types of damage and debris dispersion to consider as presented in the article.

Damage unrelated to the sinking which occurred over the vessels service life prior to the sinking 
Damage which was causative in the sinking 
Damage which occurred during progressive flooding 
Damage which occurred in the water column on the way down including hydrostatic implosion, and unsecured objects falling off 
Damage due to bottom impact, including collision damage leading to hydraulic outbursts 2 
Debris dispersion due to objects which came off higher in the water column sinking at different rates through layered currents. Objects that fall slower are carried further by currents. 
Debris dispersion due to the sinking microburst plume and hydraulic outburst plumes 
Damage due to currents, waves, benthic storms, corrosion, and biodegradation in situ. 

That gives you some idea of the type of information you will find in that article.

---

Depth is always the big question when it comes to metal detectors.  People usually do an air test and report that X detector will detect a coin at Y inches.  I've talked extensively about the limitation of air tests in the past and recommended some alternatives.  That isn't what I want to talk about now.

The deepest seeking detector, no matter how depth is measured or defined, is not always the best detector for a particular job.  There are a lot of factors to consider.

People often want the deepest seeking detector, but then use their "deep seeking detector" in a way that achieves much less than the best performance.  The wrong sweep or settings can result in very poor performance.  There can be a big difference between the potential depth and the actual depth in field conditions and actual use.

The main point I want to make right now is that depth isn't as important as you might think when hunting cobs on a beach.  The vast majority of cobs I've found have been within and inch or two of the surface.

A few days ago, I provided a link to a video that showed a guy finding old silver coins on the surface without even using a metal detector.  That was because he was looking in the right place.  He was looking where coins had been exposed.  The most important thing in my opinion, is looking in the right place - which are the places where things accumulate and remain near the surface.  In those places they will be on the surface or very near the surface.

Besides eye-balling, another way to know when you are in the right type of place is by analyzing what is in the area, including junk.  That is one reason I don't discriminate a lot.  Junk gives you important information about how good the area is.  Junk can be a good sign or a bad sign, depending upon the type of junk it is.  Different types of junk will normally, on a beach, have a predictable relationship to good targets.  Good targets will tend to be closer to junk targets that are in some ways similar to the "good" targets.  Density is one of several characteristics to consider.  Junk and other targets aren't randomly distributed.  There are reasons they are where they are.  There are enough unknowns and enough complexity to disguise some of the patterns though.

I've eye-balled cobs laying on the sand several times.  And that was not back decades ago and it was not after any of the major hurricanes.

I'm not talking about cobs back in the dunes, where they will often be down a foot or so.  I'm talking about beach cobs, which as you know, most often show up during periods of erosion.

A couple days ago I showed what appeared to be a seawall and discussed how coins can work down along a wall or other things.  That is a little different situation too.  Still they are not going to sink until the sand moves from the area.  It can take a long time for them to sink very deep.  But that was a special situation and not the type of thing I am talking about now.  Coin traps are another matter that I'll talk about again some other time.

--

On the Treasure Coast we're still having smooth seas.  The tides are more moderate.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/8/15 Report - Discussion Of How Coins Sink In Soil. North Wind Saturday But Little Erosion.

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

Treasure Coast Beach Saturday Morning After High Tide

We had some nice North winds Saturday morning, but it turned before noon.  Around noon it was coming from the East.  The result was no erosion to speak of.

Here are two pictures.  I didn't get the best pictures, but I think you can see some decent waves but no erosion.

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A few days ago I asked people to send their ideas about how coins sink in rich soil.  I received a good number of thoughtful responses.  Instead of simply summarizing those emails I decided to post many of them as they were sent.  You might benefit from any or all of them.  There was a very consistent theme.



Beach Saturday Morning After High Tide

Troy T.  sent the following email.

Thanks for the great daily blog. I live on the other coast in Tampa but I like to know what's going on over there regardless. I especially love reading your thoughts on target depth and movement and the other technical aspects of metal detecting.
 

My puzzling experience was when I found an 80's quarter close to a river under about 8" of dirt laying directly on top of a thick layer of clay.  I cut an unnecessarily large plug and the moist soil and the clay separated nicely with the coin in between. I was dismayed to see that a modern coin would be so deep but then I realized that when the river rises to that point the ground becomes a slurry and due to the clay the water has no where to go. A heavier coin like a quarter could, in the right circumstances, work its way down to the clay layer over a relatively short period of time.
 

Thanks again for the great reading and I would love to see some guest reports featured from my side of the state.

I will post reports from the West Coast of Florida, but since I'm not over there very often will depend upon such reports being sent to me via email.

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Chris S. said,

I've had experiences such as Joe D. In my case, I was in an area close to a river that floods during hurricanes and such. I was digging state quarters at 9 inches and no silver to be found that should be there. Attributed that to the silt that builds up over time. Of course the opposite could become true under the right circumstances. Let's see what some others have to say.

I should have stated that the coin may not be sinking as much as soil being placed on top. Rich soil as Joe is speaking of would be a common byproduct of a flood.

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Robert H. said

I mostly beach hunt and rarely park or land hunt. One thing I've considered why coins sink so quickly is in parks or land sites is when we get a nice down pour and the ground is very saturated or flooded with standing water. I've come across very deep modern coins 5 to 7 inches down and was always thinking how could modern coins sink that fast? Well my main thought is hard down pouring rain and flooding turns the dirt into muddy soup. Guess where the coins will settle? At the bottom of that soupy mess. That's my thought.

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William M. had the following to say.

The first thing that comes to my mind is why is the soil so rich? How was the lot cleared originally? Was it root raked? box bladed?.. was the tree and other wood material mulched on site?... I believe there's something different going on there and it's not coins sinking fast because of earthworms.. sounds like really bad drainage at very least it may have been a marsh of sorts at one time.

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Russ P. said, Here are my thoughts:

 

I've certainly spent a lot of time thinking on this issue.  It is, I believe, a complex one with many factors at play, similar to thinking about where a coin might be found on the beach.

Instead of thinking about a coin "sinking", I come at the problem from a  slightly different perspective and that is the position of the coin relative to the surface.  This is an important distinction because often there are two major forces at play:  those factors that cause a coin to actually sink and those factors that lead to additional soil or debris on top of the coin.  There are many factors contributing to each of those forces, but I'd like to briefly mention a general observation.

In my opinion, in rich soil the factors leading to soil creation, thereby adding soil to the top of the coin which causes relative "sinking", is the predominant factor at play.  Several observations have supported this hypothesis through the years.  First, if one looks at sidewalks in old areas or leading up to old houses, they often look like they were dug out, almost a slight valley between berms on either side.  Years of mowing and grass clipping has increased the height of the ground on either side of the sidewalks.  As one moves a few feet to either edge of the sidewalk the difference can be easily 4 inches or more.  Human activity accelerates this phenomenon.   In well-manicured lawns with St. Augustine grass the difference is even more pronounced.   Second, finds discovered after concrete pavement is removed are often very near the surface, even those those finds may be extremely old.  This suggests to me that those finds remained in a very stable position from the moment the pavement was poured.

There is a question that I don't have an answer to yet that I would like others opinion.  In typical Florida conditions, do coins or other objects eventually reach a stable point where they don't sink any further?  It would seem to me that, with soil creation, objects would continue to "sink" indefinitely, but now, based on some experience, wonder if there is a typical depth that essentially is a steady state, above which soil creation and possible soil destruction (if it exists) is balanced.  I've done some recent sifting which seems to suggest that possibility.

Hope this helps.  It would take quite a long blog entry to tackle this issue in a comprehensive manner!

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Bill H. said,

In Michigan where I normally hunt in summer, it is generally thought that coins drop at least an inch for every ten years time.  This takes into consideration the creation of new 'dirt" in the form of rotting leaves and grass clippings and the gradual drop in soft dirt.

There are so many factors,however, that I  don't think there can be any one rule. Tree roots can bury or lift up old coins. Adding top soil can bury them deeper for sure. Roto-tilling a garden/lawn certainly can either raise up or lower coins. I have found 1980s coins at 4 inches and 1800s coins an inch down. The clay/stone base also obviously plays huge.

But if you give me an old farm house without any of the above, I'd expect an inch every ten years down to about 4-5 inches, then after that  perhaps an inch in 20 years. The drop seems to slow down the deeper they go. I used to keep accurate records and on virgin land this was the rule. Then I decided that hunting was much more fun than record keeping and I just go for it.

Thanks for the great site- I have hardly missed a day in three years.

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When I originally received an email asking how fast coins sink in rich soil I responded that it might not be so much a matter of coins sinking as it is a matter of the coins getting covered or buried.  That is a theme you see in many of the emails I received too.  The person who asked the question wrote back and said that seemed like it could be the case.   He then mentioned that the area in question was under a banyan tree.

Much of what you read would seem to suggest that coins simply sink in dirt over time.  It often sounds like it is a very passive process that requires little or nothing more than gravity.  I believe that that when coins sink in soil it is a more active process. 

In this blog I've reported on experiments that show how coins sink in sand.  I've shown that coins simply laying on sand that does not move do not sink.  Gravity alone isn't enough.  The sand has to be moved.  I'm convinced that the situation is similar for coins in soil.

I'm not saying that coins do not sink in soil.  I'm only saying that much or all of what appears to be sinking is actually a process of covering or burying.  I know that may be nothing more than semantics to some, but I am making a distinction.   In other words, when things sink (work their way down through existing material), there is something at work besides gravity - something that agitates the soil in one way or another.  The emails posted above mentioned various processes such as rain, floods, root growth, worms, etc.

William M. asked an important question when he asked what made the soil so rich.  In this case it appears that one thing is rotting leaves.  William also listed a variety of other things that could happen to the soil.

I was surprised that people emphasized the burying process so overwhelmingly. 

The observations of Russ relative to the sidewalks were helpful.  One of those, the observation that items under concrete do not seem to sink much, is thought provoking.  The soil under a sidewalk would be prepared before the sidewalk was poured.  A sidewalk would be poured on a packed hard base.  Besides that, the sidewalk itself, would protect the ground under it against other forces such as rain.

The idea of a slowing rate or limit on sinking (if that is what you call it) is also interesting.   Even at one inch per year, it is what I would call a slow process - too slow for me to conduct good field experiments.

On a beach coins can disappear very quickly.   The tides come and go daily and the sand moves a lot.  It can happen fast - even while you watch.

As you know, I occasionally do detect up north.  I've told about a few of those hunts in this blog.  One place I hunt is heavily wooded and is very hilly.  A lot of leaves, limbs, bark, etc. falls and decays, continually producing new soil.  In depressed areas where decaying matter accumulates I find very few coins.  I've even tried raking the top layers.   Inches can accumulate in a single year there.  I tend to focus on areas where the wind or rain moves the loose material and does no allow new soil to form and accumulate.  An 1829 large cent that I found there was probably less than two inches deep,

I appreciate all of the responses I received.  They were all helpful and thought-provoking.  I hope you now have a more complete understanding of the factors involved and gained some new insight from the discussion.  I did.

Thanks to all who sent responses as well as that one person who  initiated the discussion by asking the question.

----

We'll have a fairly rough surf on the Treasure Coast today (somewhere around four or five feet), but I'm not expecting much improvement in beach conditions at all.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net




 

9/7/14 Million Dollar Coin Found by Detectorist. How Objects Sink Very Quickly Into Beach Sand.

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

Very Rare Coin Found by Detectorist.

I hope you enjoyed seeing all of the fantastic Treasure Coast treasure finds sent in by  Captain Jonah.  Things like that are still out there to be found.  If you didn't see them, you'll want to go back to the previous two posts.


The threepenny piece shown here was struck in Boston, Massachusetts back around 1652 and is one of the first coins struck in what would become the US.  The coin was recently found by a detectorist in England.  Nobody knows how it ended up over there.

The coin, expected to be worth nearly 1.5 million US dollars, was dug by a detectorist who did not know how rare and valuable it could be.  He put it in a jar and lost track of it for a bit.

The coin is a real rarity in any condition, but to top it all off, this one is in amazing condition.

Here is the link to the article about that.   I think you'll enjoy reading it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2745782/Minted-Dug-Midlands-field-1m-perfect-US-threepenny-bit-time-Pilgrim-Fathers.html

The detectorist and landowner will split the proceeds.  The coin is not claimed by England because it is a single coin and not a hoard.  

I wish we had something more like their antiquities laws.

One of the things about this story that is very interesting to me and very relevant to any detectorist is that nobody expected such a rare US coin to be found in England.  Things don't always pop up where you expect them.  It is possible to find a rare coin from England or any other country right here on the Treasure Coast.  It doesn't have to be a US coin, or even a Spanish cob.  You just never know!

Many thanks to Peter H. who sent this link.  He is one of our detecting friends from across the big pond. 


My 9/4/14 post, which discussed how objects sink in beach sand, received the most +1s of any of my posts.  I'll continue with that topic today.

A few days ago I showed how moving water would suspend a layer of sand and cause a coin or ring to sink.  How far the item would sink was very much determined by how fast the water moved, and how much sand was suspended and moved by the current. 

As I showed in my simple demonstration, the objects sank down to a stable layer of sand and stopped there.  I didn't see any relationship between the amount of time the water and sand moved and depth other than the very short amount of time that was needed for the objects to reach the stable layer of sand.  After that the object sank no more.

If this was the only way that objects like coins and rings sank into beach sand, it might take numerous periods of rough seas for an object to eventually sink through enough layers of sand to reach bedrock.  That is not the only way that objects sink though.  There is another thing that causes objects to sink more quickly.

You might have read articles about objects sinking into beach sand very quickly.  I've read reports that seem fantastically unbelievable.  I have however observed something that makes objects sink more quickly than the type of currents I talked about a few days ago.

When I circulated water and sand in a cup, it took seconds for the test objects to sink a mere eighth of an inch.  However, when water was forced down on the sand, rather than simply circulated as a current would do, the sand was quickly suspended and the objects sank much faster.

Here are two very short videos showing what I am talking about.  The only difference between the two videos is the amount of water force.  Take a look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36tgNx9a8Fg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESSOdH78eic

The results were amazing.  In that one second or so when the water was on, the objects sank an inch or more.  The rate of sinking was many times faster than when the water was circulated horizontally as was the case in my previous experiments.

After turning the water off, I stuck my finger into the sand to find where the objects went and found them down an inch or more.  Each time I repeated this experiment, the results were very similar.  The more force, the deeper the objects sank.

It appears that the downward force of water disturbs sand to deeper levels and suspends sand more quickly than horizontally circulating water, and as a result the objects sank more quickly.

How does that apply to a beach?  Waves crash with a similar downward force.  That happens not once, but repeatedly.  Each crashing wave disturbs and suspends sand.

As the tides go in and out the waves will crash at a slightly different place.  That means a wide area will be affected during each tidal cycle. 

If you have ever observed how they build a dock in the river, you might have seen them pump water downward, pushing sand up and out so that the post can be inserted down to bedrock.  This is a very similar effect.  When the sand is being suspended by the forced water, the post is easily pushed in, but once the post is in place it remains very stable in the sand.  (Bedrock in the river is about six feet deep.)

So now I have described two different types of forces that make objects sink in beach sand.  One is the horizontal current that suspends and moves sand, and the other is the vertical force of crashing waves.

When a wave crashes, sand is suspended, then the water rushes in towards shore, carrying sand with it.

I observed this very clearly on a beach recently when the waves were crashing on a sand bar and a flat layer of sand was being washed in towards shore where it was beginning to fill a small dip.  The front edge of the moving sand was very obvious.  (That was the day my camera batteries were dead.)

I posted this picture of that same beach back in my 8/13/14 post, but now I have a much better appreciation of the forces, how the sand is moved and how objects sink.

Notice the red line where the waves were crashing.  The waves look big, but they were less than two feet on that particular day.  Where the waves crashed, sand was kicked up, very much like in the two videos above. 

Any objects under a crashing wave could sink inches, and maybe more. 

Add to that the fact that the sand would only partially settle before being hit again.  Some of the suspended sand would then be pushed towards shore where it would settle. 

After a wave, the water rushing back out is not moving with as much force as the incoming water and is met by more incoming water.

Another thing to point out is that in the situation shown in the illustration the waves are nearly parallel to the beach.  There is no angle to slice away beach sand.

After objects sink deeply, they will likely remain put until they are uncovered again.  If there is a storm and the water rises and the waves crash on the beach or near shore buried objects can be uncovered again.


On the Treasure Coast we still have a small surf.  There is some weather that has very slight chance of developing into a cyclone over North Florida and another disturbance that is still closer to Africa.  It won't get here for several days, if at all.

We'll have a small surf through most of this week.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

9/4/14 Report - How Coins and Rings Sink In Beach Sand. Targets Only Sink As Far As The Disturbed Layer.

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

Same Cup of Water and Sand
Shown Yesterday.

Just in:  I have some great new pictures of treasure ship finds sent by Captain Jonah!   Probably tomorrow.


I accidentally did an ingenious experiment.  I should probably call it an observation rather than an experiment.  I'll get back to that in just a minute. 

I always enjoy receiving emails from this blog's readers.  They are an educated and intelligent bunch.

Yesterday I talked about how objects of interest sink in sand.  I received an email from Bill F., who has a degree in physical oceanography and did his undergrad thesis on beach erosion at Ponce Inlet.  

Here is some of what Bill said.

1)  The finer the sand particle, the flatter the beach
2)  The faster the current, the bigger the particles which are moved
3)  As you show, without wave/water energy, objects don't settle on their own.
4)  The heavier/denser an object, the less likely it is to move horizontally.
5)  Shape makes a difference.

Thanks Bill!   Those are some good points to remember.


Above is a picture of the same cup that I showed yesterday.  The ring and coin in this cup never sank so much as a micro inch while it sat undisturbed.   That clearly demonstrates one thing Bill said -  without wave/water energy, objects don't settle on their own. 

I decided to see what it actually takes for objects to sink in the sand.  I put my hand over the cup and moved the cup in a semi-circular motion so that the water moved.  When the water moved the very top layer of sand lifted and the suspended sand moved with the water while the objects pretty much stayed in place.  When I stopped, a little sand covered the objects, but very little.  With gentle only the sand above the green line moved.  This is important, and I'll get back to it.

When the objects got covered there were a couple of ways I could tell how deeply they got covered.  You'll notice that the surface of the sand in the cup (below the yellow line) is not exactly horizontal. 
A perfectly circular even motion moved the water so that the sand remained level across the cup, but by moving in a more jerky  manner resulted in the sand moving from one side to the other of the cup to the other. 

I could see how deeply the objects got buried either by sticking my finger in and finding the objects or I tilting the cup and moving it so that the sand then uncovered one side and one object.   I could then see where the previously covered object had stopped sinking.  

Here is an important point.  The amount of sand that moved when I moved the cup was directly related to how fast I moved the cup and therefore how fast the water moved. 

I had no idea how important it was going to be for me to be able to see through the container when I started this experiment. 

When moving the cup gently, a small amount of sand moved - only a thin layer.  Approximately the amount of sand above the green line which I drew on the picture of the cup moved when I moved the cup gently.  The top of that layer moved the most, decreasing as the moving layer got deeper until there was no suspension and movement of sand at all.

The fastest moving sand was clearly suspended, and the grains appeared farther apart than the grains that were lower in the moving layer, which moved more slowly and less overall.

 How deep do you think the objects sank in the sand when the cup was moved gently?   Now this is an important principle.  The objects sank to the surface of the layer of stable sand, and then stayed there.

I recalled how many times in the past few years that I dug an object and found it on the surface of a lower layer of sand.  If you go back through this blog I'm sure you can find that.  Often the lower layer was a different color or texture.  Often it was a layer composed of course shells.

That might not be surprising finding, but it sure was interesting to see.  I could keep the water moving at a relatively slow rate and no more sand would be suspended or moved.  No matter how long I kept the water moving at the same speed, the objects sank no deeper than to the surface of the layer of stable sand.

I know this is not a highly controlled experiment and what happens on a beach will be somewhat different, but in I think this principle will hold.  Just like in the previous report, the objects did not sink into the undisturbed sand no matter how long they sat there in the cup.  In this demonstration the objects did not sink into undisturbed sand even though they did sink through the suspended moving sand.

Here are a few observations that held up all through these demonstrations with the moving cup.

 (1) Only a relatively thin layer of sand was disturbed by the moving water. 
(2)  When the cup and water was moved more forcefully, a larger layer of sand was moved.
(3)  The speed of the sand decreased in the moving layer of sand from top to bottom until there was no movement at the bottom of the layer.

At first I moved the cup gently and only the layer above he green line moved, but when I moved the cup more forcefully, then the sand moved as deep as the light blue line, and that is where the objects ended up, and when I moved it even more forcefully, the sand moved as deeply as the dark blue line, and that is about where the objects ended up.

On the beach, different storms will disturb deeper layers of sand allowing targets to sink deeper.  They will then often be covered again by incoming sand. 

In this demonstration I'm only addressing sinking targets, which occurs primarily when the trigger point for sand is reached but not the trigger point for targets. 

This simple experiment has many limitations, but it reveals some important principles that I've observed in operation on the beach.  I reasoned that objects in deeper layers of undisturbed sand would remain in place, but with this demonstration I observed it and am much more certain of it.

Another thing I observed with this little experiment is how it is only suspended sand that moves.  I could see this on the beach just yesterday.  The waves were crashing on a sand bar.  In front of the sand bar was what I might call a flat topped creeping sand bar.  You could see a clear edge of a layer of sand that was moving from the crash zone towards shore.  The crash would suspend sand, and then that suspended sand would be washed ahead in the surge.

Where the sand was suspended, you couldn't see through the water.  That makes sense.  But closer to shore, where there was a dip beyond the creeping sand bar, and the water there was clear.  That is where I found a couple of relatively new coins that had not yet been covered by the incoming tide and creeping sand bar. 

As the tide comes in, the area where the waves crash and most sand is suspended closer to shore.  Obviously that means that a greater area of sand is affected.  The crash zone changes and the area of surge comes in and then goes out again.

If you've spent much time down in the Fort Lauderdale and Miami area, you know that they have much more calm water than we do.  Many days the shallow water sits still almost like you are in a bath tub, especially before the sun starts to heat things up.   The shallow water on the Treasure Coast seldom has that kind of flat water even when the surf is down to one foot.  That small difference in roughness appears to make a big difference in the average sink rate of targets.  They'll stay in detector range down there a lot longer than on the Treasure Coast.  Couple that with the absolute number of people and what they wear and there is an even bigger difference between South Florida and the Treasure Coast.  Bottom conditions are very different.

Well, I'll quit there for today.  This is getting long.  The principles demonstrated are important and help explain how things settle and therefore how and where things will be found.  I know that I did not address all of the relevant factors and situations. 

I'll do some more experiments someday to help answer some of the remaining questions.

I'm sure some of you will find this post tedious although several of you used the +1 button to indicate that you particularly liked the previous post.  For my own purposes and understanding, I'm glad I did the demonstration.


There are no storms to watch in the Atlantic right now.

On the Treasure Coast we still have a one foot surf and will continue to have a calm surf for at least a few more days.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@Comcast.net

8/13/14 Report - How Objects Sink During Summer Beach Conditions. Valuable Antique Jewelry. H. L. Hunley Submarine. Titanium On Beach

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

Antique Diamond and Ruby Ring.
Source: See aol.com link below.

I'm often asked about those light pieces of melted metal that people find along the coast.   They look a lot like aluminum.  I believe that many of those are titanium.   I've posted about that in the past.  Since I still get questions about those finds, here is a little repeat of what I said.

If you've ever dug up a piece of metal that looks something like melted aluminum on a Treasure Coast beach, it could be titanium from a rocket or maybe the space shuttle Challenger disaster.

Here is a link to a web site that tells how to identify titanium.

http://mrtitanium.info/2008/03/17/how-to-tell-if-a-piece-of-metal-is-really-titanium/

As you might know, titanium is also used to make inexpensive jewelry these days and is much less expensive than platinum, gold or silver.



Below is a beach photo that I showed a few days ago.  I'm showing it again as an illustration.

Recent Treasure Coast Beach Picture.

A few days ago a lifeguard told me about a diamond engagement ring that was lost a few days earlier.  He said the lady was in knee deep water at the time.  He also said that even though the ring was lost a few days before, the water had been calm.  He was thinking it would still be about where it was lost since the water had been so calm.

 

What the lifeguard did not understand is the poor sandy beach conditions in that area.  Despite the generally very calm surf, things were not staying near the surface, but rather were quickly sinking our of detector range.

 

The wave in the above photo is not as big as it looks.  It wasn't much more than about a foot.  It is breaking nicely and from its form you couldn't tell it from a ten foot wave. 

 

What I want to point out is that where the red line is, the crashing water will churn the sand even though the surf is small.  Furthermore, the line of impact will move as the tide goes in and out so that the red line will move ten or twenty yards or more in and out twice a day.  Not only that but the area in front of the crashing wave, between the red and yellow line has surging water which will move the sand and keep it from settling.  That means sand will be accumulating from the red line to the yellow line and a little beyond.   That is what happens during a summer beach.

 

So even though the water looks very calm, it won't take long for an object like a ring to be buried.  It is partly a matter of the ring sinking and partly a matter of  it being covered.  The sand in this area is loose and the apparent sinking happens at a fairly rapid rate.

 

As I have pointed out in the past.   It takes more water force to move some objects than others.  I'm talking about horizontal movement now, not vertical.

 

It takes very little water movement to move sand, especially when it has been suspended, as it would be by the crashing wave.

 

The fact that it takes little force to move sand but considerably more to move something like a ring, which is more dense,but which also is shaped in a way that does not provide good surface area to the water to push against, what happens is that the sand moves faster around the curved object, letting the object sink through the loose sand while at the same time moving more sand in to cover it up.

 

There is what I call a trigger point for different objects.   The trigger point (amount of water force need to move an object) for sand is much lower than the trigger point for an object like a ring.   That is much of what accounts for objects like rings sinking quickly in sand when the force of water is slight.  That is what basically what happens during poor beach conditions.

 

The trigger point is determined not only by an objects weight or density, but also by its shape.  I've demonstrated that by experiments in the past.

 

Here is one link to reference.  You can search for others.

 

http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/search?q=trigger

 

Above is a picture of an antique diamond and ruby ring worth $80,000.  Use this link to learn more about the ring and a matching $160,000 bracelet

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/08/12/antiques-roadshow-diamond-and-ruby-jewelry-worth-a-fortune/20945611/


The H. L. Hunley being conserved.

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20140812/PC16/140819871/1177/scientists-to-begin-exposing-the-real-hunley

Nice picture and article.


There is no tropical weather to watch in the Atlantic.

On the Treasure Coast the tides are still fairly big, but the surf is still around one foot and will remain that small for several days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

8/5/13 Report - What Actually Determines How Obects Move On a Beach Or In the Water.

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

Four Lead Objects Used in Illustration.

One thing you often read and hear is that heavier objects sink deeper in the sand and are found deeper than lighter objects.  That is partly true, but there are other factors that are just as important as weight in determining where items will be found.

In the past I've shown examples of extremely heavy things, such as concrete barges weighing hundreds of tons, that were washed up onto shore and were found on the surface of the beach.  Obviously there is something to consider besides weight.

Some people, instead of talking about weight, talk about density or specific gravity.  That is more accurate and more to the point than only talking about an item's weight (a ton of Styrofoam will still float), but there are still other factors besides weight and density that affects where an object will be found on a beach or in the water.  

As I've pointed out in the past, and as I've seen no one else do previously, shape is a very important variable for determining where coins and jewelry will be found.  The amount of surface of the object that the water can push against and the amount of surface area that will contact the surface of the sand are both very important factors.  

A flat thin sheet will be moved more by the water than a round ball of the same material and will also not sink into the sand like a round ball would, for example. 

Finger rings are different from either of those shapes, not presenting much vertical surface for the water to push against and not presenting much surface to contact the sand.

I did an experiment to illustrate how objects of different shapes will be move differently by water.  I took the four lead sinkers shown above and placed them in a line on the sand.   All were one ounce except for the larger of the two disks, which was two ounces.   All had the same density and three had the same weight. 

To simulate a wave, I took a large bucket of water and spilled it abruptly on the objects at roughly a thirty degree angle.

Final Position of the Same Four Objects.

To the left is a picture showing the final position. of the four objects that were previously in a line.  The egg shaped object moved the farthest, followed the the fish-shaped sinker, then the lighter disk, and then the larger disk, which was moved the least by the water.

That is what I would have predicted.

The shapes did affect how much the items were moved by the water  - as much as their weights.  Density was the same.  Notice that the fish-shaped sinker is about the same distance away from the small disk-shaped sinker as the small disk sinker is away from the larger sinker. 

I've talked before about coins being shaped to present more surface to the sand and therefore resist sinking while presenting little vertical surface to the force of the water.  Presenting a low profile to the force of the water, coins generally hug the surface of the sand and linger behind as the sand is moved. 

Sinking in beach sand is as much or more a matter of the sand being moved as it is a matter of the weight of the object forcing itself down through the sand.  I'll demonstrate that some time.

Weight did play a roll.  The heaviest of the two objects of similar shape did move less than the lighter one.

I didn't address sinking in this experiment.  I did another experiment to illustrate that, but didn't catch a good picture of the results so I couldn't really show the results of that experiment.  I wanted to improve the experiment anyway, so I'll do it again and hopefully catch some good photos of what is going on.

In the second experiment, the fish-shaped sinker disappeared into the sand below the two coin shaped objects, while the egg shaped sinker did not sink much.  

There are many variables.  Some I haven't yet mentioned.  They include the surface texture of the object, the texture and compactness of the sand and the various layers, the amount of time the object is exposed to the force of water and the way the water is moving, to name some.

I sometimes refer to the weight of the object in my posts when I actually mean something much more.  It is a convenient shorthand that some readers will accept on face value but which others who have read more of my previous posts I hope will understand is not really meant to be taken literally.


I have a lot more to say about this but am running out of time and want to get this posted today.  I'll therefore follow up on topics like this in the future.

On the Treasure Coast the surf is only one foot today, as expected.  The wind is from the west and the beaches are sandy.

It wouldn't be a bad time to take a dip.   Conditions on the beach aren't very good.


One other note on the wood handle conversion that I talked about a few days ago.   Consider the depth of the water you will generally work in determining how long to make the handle.  Or make a two or three and change them.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net