Beach Cusps On South Coast Of England

Beach cusps are one of the strangest natural formation along the water’s edge. They are made up of a rhythmic pattern of small cusps and bays.

They are most noticeable on shorelines that have coarse material like pebbles, however, they can occur on beaches with sediment of any size. They also seem to form best when the beach is steep, and regular non-breaking waves arrive nearly at right angles to the beach.

The formation of beach cusps, the process is not fully understood. There are two prevailing theories about their formation. The first is the ‘standing edge’ theory, which involves interactions between normal waves approaching the shore and “edge” waves, which form perpendicular to the shore. The interactions between these waves form regularly-spaced points of different wave intensity. The other theory is the self-organization theory, which claims that cusps are the result of regular wave, current, and sand interactions over time that create feedback loops. Source: http://www.boredpanda.com/beach-cusps-sa…

Photo credit: 1. namraka 2.David Abercrombie 3.leenaj