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https://theconversation.com/millions-of-satellite-images-reveal-how-beaches-around-the-pacific-vanish-or-replenish-in-el-nino-and-la-nina-years-198505>
"If you’ve been visiting the same beach for a few summers, you’ll have seen it
change. While beaches look static, they’re actually one of the most dynamic
regions on Earth. Winds, waves and tides stir and push sand around constantly.
Storms can claw out huge volumes of sand and move it elsewhere.
On top of these changes is a hidden force – the El Niño Southern-Oscillation
(ENSO) climate cycle. Our new research explores how this cycle affects beaches
around the Pacific Rim. Using cutting-edge satellite technology, we tracked
changes over 40 years.
What did we find? The cycle matters a great deal. While the natural ENSO
Pacific climate phenomenon affects weather patterns around the world, we
haven’t fully understood how it affects beaches.
The main impact? Coastal storms intensified by the ENSO cycle. Storms can
rapidly strip sand from beaches to create sandbars, dump it out at sea, or
replenish another beach. These changes threaten to undermine beachfront
properties and roads as well as beach habitats.
For Australia, if a La Niña is predicted to arrive in the next six months,
coastal communities prone to erosion should prepare for storms stripping away
sand. Our recent repeat La Niñas brought large waves and heavy erosion along
the New South Wales and southern Queensland coast. During this period, houses
almost fell into the sea in the NSW Central Coast, while wild waves made a new
passage through Bribie Island.
During El Niño, Australia’s beaches recover, while beaches from California to
Chile erode.
But as climate change ramps up, the effects of these ENSO cycles may become
more intense."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
