Abstract
Changing shoreline positions along the Sinai coast of Egypt were determined by comparing aerial photographs and historical charts with present-day conditions. The analyses identify longshore patterns wherein erosion along a protruding stretch of the coast gives way to accretion in an adjacent major embayment. This pattern defines two coastal subcells consisting of source/sink couplets. There is a general correspondence between the mineral variation, grain sizes of beach sand, and the patterns of shoreline changes. Associated with erosion/ accretion shoreline change is a selective transport of different minerals according to their densities and grain sizes. Two heavy-mineral groups were obtained by applying Q-mode factor analysis on the heavy-mineral data. These two groups are influenced by transport processes, including sediment provenance from different sources: eroded Nile delta west of Sinai, relict sediments from the former Nile distributaries, and sediment supply by land valleys and from wind-blown sand.
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Received: 2 June 1995 / Revision received: 29 May 1996
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Frihy, O., Lotfy, M. Shoreline changes and beach-sand sorting along the northern Sinai coast of Egypt. Geo-Marine Letters 17, 140–146 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003670050019
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003670050019