EGU22-6075
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6075
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

How does Coastal Gravel get Sorted under Stormy Longshore Transport?

Haggai Eyal1,2, Yehouda Enzel1, Eckart Meiburg3, Bernhard Vowinckel4, and Nadav G Lensky2,1
Haggai Eyal et al.
  • 1Institute of Earth sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (haggai.eyal@mail.huji.ac.il)
  • 2Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel
  • 3Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
  • 4Leichtweiß Institut für Wasserbau, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

Storm waves transport and sort coarse gravel along coasts. This fundamental process is important under changing sea-levels and increased storm frequency and intensity. However, limited information on intra-storm clast motion restricts theory development for coastal gravel sorting and coastal management of longshore transport. Here, we use ‘smart boulders’ equipped with loggers recording underwater, real-time, intra-storm clast motion, and measured longshore displacement of varied-mass marked boulders during storms. We utilize the unique setting of the Dead Sea shores where rapidly falling water levels allow isolating boulder transport during individual storms. Guided by these observations, we develop a new model quantifying the critical wave height for a certain clast mass mobilization. Then, we obtain an expression for the longshore clast displacement under the fluid-induced pressure impulse of a given wave. Finally, we formulate the sorting enforced by wave-height distributions during a storm, demonstrating how sorting is a direct manifestation of regional hydroclimatology.

How to cite: Eyal, H., Enzel, Y., Meiburg, E., Vowinckel, B., and G Lensky, N.: How does Coastal Gravel get Sorted under Stormy Longshore Transport?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6075, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6075, 2022.