Oh, How They Move

Slowly I am pulling together my PIT tag information and mapping cobble movement on the beach. Today, with the help of Josh Logan, I was able to partially overcome my handicap with various software and figure out how to put this information together. What you see here is as hot off of the press as it comes. This image covers two surveys on August 4th (red triangles) and August 12, 2008 (white triangles), with a sample of 32 tagged rocks released on August 2nd. So what is the big deal? Well, this two week period was relatively quiet. Waves were very small (definitely unsurfable). Despite this, stuff was moving on the order of 10 meters or more per day. Remember, these are rocks, not sand. Also, we can clearly document a VERY uni-directional pattern of rock transport on this section of beach. Its only a start, but being able to see SOME progress is a very nice thing in my day.

Ian