What is the beach made of?
What is sand made of on a normal California beach?
Where did the material come from and how did it get to the beach?
How is the material sorted by the water?
Describe the differences between a summer and winter beach.
What causes these seasonal changes in beach morphology (shape)?
Why doesn't the sand pile up at the mouths of the rivers?
What happens to waves as they enter shallow water?
What does a longshore current do to sand?
Define longshore transport.
What are the limits of the "river of sand?"
Why does a sand spit form off the end of the breakwater?
How are they keeping the harbor clear?
Why does the beach bulge behind the breakwater in Santa Monica?
What happens when a river is dammed?
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