Storm beach

Chesil Beach from the Isle of Portland.

A storm beach is a beach affected by particularly fierce waves, usually with a very long fetch. The resultant landform is often a very steep beach (up to 45°) composed of rounded cobbles, shingle and occasionally sand. The stones usually have an obvious grading of pebbles, from large to small, with the larger diameter stones typically arrayed at the highest beach elevations. It may also contain many small parts of shipwrecked boats.^[1]

Examples

A noted textbook example is the 18-mile (29 km) long Chesil Beach in Dorset, one of three major shingle structures in Britain. It is also a tombolo connecting the Isle of Portland to the mainland at Abbotsbury, west of the resort of Weymouth. Other examples appear in the Shetland and Orkney Islands, as well as the Scottish mainland at Caithness. The beaches of Lakshdweep Islands are also storm beaches.

Gallery

These boulders, thrown up by the waves to form a storm beach 30 metres above the sea, demonstrate the power of the sea
Shingly storm beach below a low cliff. The line of seaweed marks the high-water mark.
The whole length of the beach here is backed by a berm of stones, some of considerable size, which have presumably been piled up by winter storms.
Laggan Sands at Lochbuie has a sandy beach behind a storm beach of boulders.
Storm beach connecting Garbh Eilean and Eilean an Tigh. The narrow neck of pebbles is covered at spring tides and during storms.

References

↑ Characterization of a storm beach

Coastal geography

Landforms	Anchialine pool Archipelago Atoll Avulsion Ayre Barrier island Bay Baymouth bar Bight Bodden Brackish marsh Cape Channel Cliff Coast Coastal plain Coastal waterfall Continental margin Continental shelf Coral reef Cove Dune cliff-top Estuary Firth Fjard Fjord Freshwater marsh Fundus Gat Geo Gulf Gut Headland Inlet Intertidal wetland Island Islet Isthmus Lagoon Machair Marine terrace Mega delta Mouth bar Mudflat Natural arch Peninsula Reef Regressive delta Ria River delta Salt marsh Shoal Shore Skerry Sound Stack Strait Strand plain Submarine canyon Tidal island Tidal marsh Tide pool Tied island Tombolo Windwatt

Beaches	Beach cusps Beach evolution Beach morphodynamics Beach ridge Beachrock Pocket beach Raised beach Recession Shell beach Shingle beach Storm beach Wash margin

Processes	Blowhole Cliffed coast Coastal biogeomorphology Coastal erosion Concordant coastline Current Cuspate foreland Discordant coastline Emergent coastline Feeder bluff Fetch Flat coast Graded shoreline Headlands and bays Ingression coast Large-scale coastal behaviour Longshore drift Marine regression Marine transgression Raised shoreline Rip current Rocky shore Sea cave Sea foam Shoal Spit Steep coast Submergent coastline Surf break Surf zone Surge channel Swash Undertow Volcanic arc Wave-cut platform Wave shoaling Wind wave Wrack zone

Management	Accretion Coastal management Integrated coastal zone management Submersion

Related	Bulkhead line Grain size boulder clay cobble granule pebble sand shingle silt Intertidal zone Littoral zone Physical oceanography Region of freshwater influence

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