The Lanfear-Christianson dunes are the result of a local phenomenon of longshore drift. Longshore drift is the result of wave action interacting with river deposition. As the coast erodes over time the resulting sediment becomes sorted in the ocean as a result of the particles' relative mass. Wave action then transports the sand in the direction of the acute side of the angle formed by the wave and the shore. In the case of the Lanfear-Christianson dunes, it was the mad river which brought the load of sediment down the coast.
Once the sand is sorted from the larger masses in the sediment and is brought above the water level it is then subject to atmospheric pressure: winds. Aeolian Geomorphology is the study of how the wind shapes the earth. As the disciplines' central issue, dunes are a never ending vision of change. I went to visit the Lanfear Christianson dunes on the fourth of November with the Freinds of the Dunes. While visiting, I took pictures of aspects in the landscape fundamental to any coastal setting.
This is series is a retrospective of my life taken from emails that I sent or received on the First of the Month.
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