Waves and Beaches: The Powerful Dynamics of Sea and Coast - Hardcover

McCoy, Kim; Bascom, Willard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1938340957 ISBN 13: 9781938340956

Publisher: Patagonia, 2021

Synopsis

The Bestselling Classic Updated for Surfers, Sailors, Oceanographers, Climate Activists, and Those Who Love the Sea

First published in 1963 and updated in 1979, this classic was an essential handbook for anyone who studies, surfs, protects, or is fascinated by the ocean. The original author, Willard Bascom, was a master of the subject and included a wealth of information, based on theory and statistics, but also anecdotal observation and personal experience. It brought to the general public understanding of the awesome and complex power of the waves.

This revision from Kim McCoy adds recent facts and anecdotes to update the book’s relevance in the time of climate change. One of the most significant effects of global warming will be sea-level rise. What will this mean to waves and beaches, and what effects are we already seeing? New text and photos cover events such as the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, Hurricane Katrina flooding of 2005, and the 2011 earthquake and resulting devastation in Fukishima.

As well as students, surfers, and the general public, this updated edition of a beloved classic is an essential handbook for climate scientists and ocean activists, providing clear explanations and detailed resources for the constant battle to preserve the shore.

About this title

About the Author:

Kim McCoy's ocean research began where the land and sea merge - with surf zone wave dynamics and continues today with the coastal effects of climate change.

Expeditions from the tropics to polar oceans with multinational academic, commercial and governmental institutions helped Kim pioneer advances in instrumentation, underwater communications, autonomous underwater vehicles and free-diving.

Educated in Germany, France and the US, Kim was presented with the Scientific Achievement Award in 2018 for his work as a Principle Scientist with NATO in Italy. Prior to Italy, Kim managed Ocean Sensors, Inc., was the Marine Technology Society Chair for Oceanographic Instrumentation and was awarded several patents. Kim is fluent in multiple languages.

He has been seduced by beaches and observed waves on all seven continents; smeared in the fluid mud of the Amazon, journeyed along the Mekong, Nile and Mississippi Deltas, traveled the Australian coastline, plunged into the Antarctic Ocean (without a wetsuit), crossed the Pacific, Atlantic, Drake's Passage on ships and sailed a boat from Africa to the Caribbean.

The adventure continues: Kim recently completed an Ironman and will continue to swim, dive, surf, rock climb and paraglide until motion stops, viscosity ceases, buoyancy is overwhelmed. Kim lives in San Diego.

Willard Newell Bascom (November 7, 1916 in New York City – September 20, 2000 in San Diego, California) was an engineer, adventurer and scientist, as well as a writer, photographer, painter, miner, cinematographer, and archeologist, who first proposed using Neoprene for wetsuits to fellow scientist Hugh Bradner. He authored several books, which include the topics of waves, geology, archaeology, poetry, and oceanography. In his book Deep Water, Ancient Ships he first proposed the hypothesis that anoxic water in the Black Sea would preserve ancient Black Sea shipwrecks. He led the first test drillings for Project Mohole, and was project director from 1960-1962. Bascom was a consultant to the Advisory Committee on Government Organization. He also served as the Technical Director of the Advisory Committee on Civil Defense of the National Academy of Science and National Research Council. He is the original author of Waves and Beaches, originally published in 1963 and reissued in 1979 (Anchor).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Prologue

Is there anyone who can watch without fascination the struggle for supremacy between sea and land?

The sea attacks relentlessly, marshaling the force of its powerful waves against the land’s strongest points. It collects the energy of distant winds and transports it across thousands of miles of open ocean as quietly rolling swell. On nearing shore this calm disguise is suddenly cast off, and the waves rise up as angry breakers, hurling themselves against the land in a final furious assault. Turbulent water, green and white, is flung against sea cliffs and forced into the cracks between the rocks to dislodge them. When the pieces fall the churning water grinds them against each other to form sand; the sand already on the beach melts away before the onslaught.

But the land defends itself with such subtle skill that often it will gain ground in the face of the attack. Sometimes it will trade a narrow zone of high cliff for a whole low beach. Or it may use some of its beach material in a flanking maneuver to seal off arms of the sea that have recklessly reached between the headlands. The land constantly straightens its front to present the least possible shoreline to the sea’s onslaught.

When the great storm waves come, the beach will temporarily retreat, slyly deploying part of its material in a sandy underwater bar that forces the waves to break prematurely and spend their energies in futile foam and turbulence before they reach the main coast. When the storm subsides, the small waves that follow contritely return the sand to widen the beach again. Rarely can either of the antagonists claim a permanent victory.

This shifting battleground is the surf zone and the beach face. The two combatants continue their battle in a coastal world that exists at the whim of a grander empire; now swept with the winds of Climate Change; their battleground is shifting, rising with a sea level not seen for millennia. This is their story in the 21st Century.|

Preface to the Third Edition

Big whorls have little whorls,

which feed on their velocity

And little whorls have lesser whorls,

and so on to viscosity.” - L. F. Richardson

This Third Edition of Waves and Beaches celebrates the ongoing relationship of the sea and the land in the 21st Century. The nature of breaking waves and beach formation have not changed; the heat of the Sun creates the wind and its energy lives as a wave until it dies upon the shore. However our measurement techniques, instrumentation and interactions with the waves have changed. The number of surfers, divers and people living in the coastal areas have all grown immensely. The size of ships and the number of offshore structures have grown into a web of international commerce which influences all humans. These changes now affect urban planning, large scale funding and political decision making - all upon a rising sea level. By understanding the origins of such dynamics, societies can respond to coastal changes and manage the expectations and wellbeing of its members.

The Cascade of Wave Energy

This third edition of Waves and Beaches also expands its scope with understanding of the changing waves of cascading energy affecting our planet.

In the Beginning, the first release of energy was immense; tumbling whorling waves of energy radiated outward. Subatomic particles paired with partners and organized into elements. Those elements courted companion elements and spawned chemical compounds. As the universe swirled, gravity cleverly gathered matter into galaxies, formed spinning solar systems beaded with planets, ours has been gifted and shielded by water.

All of the Earth, its waters, land and atmosphere are beating with wave energy. It is part of a marvelous display of the ebb and flow of energy since creation – since the 'big bang' if you prefer. For billions of years, waves of energy, juggled by gravity, have continually heated and cooled; stirring our planet's geology, chemical brews, atmosphere and waters.

Water stabilizes our climate. It takes energy to change ridgid water (ice) into flowing liquid. It takes even more energy to change liquid water to a cloud of gas (water vapor). Earth's great seasonal harmonies are subtle balances in the amounts of water, ice and water vapor. This stability has aided civilization for most of the last four thousand years.

Before that time, histories of changing climate are contained in the Polar ice-cores from both Greenland and Antarctica. These histories contain waves of warm and cold climate, each closely related to the amounts and types of gasses in our atmosphere. Closer to the Equator, a million years of coral reefs, oceanic sediments, tree rings and plant pollen data all tell us matching stories – it is an irrefutable narrative of our planet's ancient oceanic circulation and atmospheric weather patterns.

A cascading flow of energy connects everything. It influences the formation of continenents, earthquakes, the strength of the sun's rays, volcanic eruptions, the amount of ice, sea level, human population dynamics, types of atmospheric gasses, ocean circulation patterns, seasons, the warm-cold meanders of the jet stream, winds, ocean waves, beach erosion and sand formation. All are interlinked and essential.

These essential roles have been disrupted by rapid population growth, the use of fossil fuels, damming rivers, changing sediment loads, diverting the flow of water through estuaries and deltas as we contaminate aquifers with chemical pollutants. There is no alibi. The world's oceans are experiencing more intense hurricanes, rising sea levels, coastal erosion, storm surges and saltwater intrusion into our freshwater aquifers. The waves and beaches of the world are elevating their battle during this swiftly transforming era, the most turbulent time since the 'rise of humanity'.

This third edition of Waves and Beaches will help you take action.

“Gravity is the viscus force of the universe; culture is the viscous force of civilization.” – KMC

About this edition

• Publisher: Patagonia
• Publication date: 2021
• ISBN 10: 1938340957
• ISBN 13: 9781938340956
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 400