Date of Award

1999

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Geography

Keywords

Physical Geography.

Supervisor

Trenhaile, A. S.,

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

The conditions under which swash zone sedimentary streaks formed were investigated. Twenty-six observations on two Lake Erie beaches were made, during which measurements were taken that described beach morphology, swash zone and nearshore wave environment, and swash zone and plunge step sedimentology. Data were analyzed such that the effects of sedimentation, beach morphology, and wave environment were linked to the formation, or lack, thereof, of swash zone sedimentary streaks. Streak and non-streak beaches could not be differentiated according to their relative percentages of light and dark minerals using analysis of variance. However, the results of the statistical treatment of grain size profiles, using ANOVA, were significantly different on streak and non-streak beaches. Streak beaches were found to have significantly more platykurtic distributions than non-streak beaches whose sediments were more highly concentrated in the coarse and medium sand ranges. Statistically significant separation of streak and non-streak beaches was accomplished using discriminant function analysis. Five variables were included in the analysis. These were, in order of statistical appearance in the forward stepwise approach taken: swash zone slope, swash period, wave angle, wave period, and swash velocity. Including additional variables in the model did not enhance the statistical separation of streak and non-streak beaches. The results suggest that the causal mechanism underlying swash zone sedimentary streak formations are primarily associated with beach sedimentology and beach morphology. However, wave environment does appear to play a determinative role as long as the right sedimentary and morphological conditions pre-exist.Dept. of Geography. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1999 .B68. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0467. Adviser: A. S. Trenhaile. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1999.

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