Undergraduate elective course in geology

- basic understanding of shoreline processes

Stand alone field exercise

- Understanding of geomorphic processes acting on the beach
- Identifying parts of the beach and beach deposits

- relating current shoreline processes to past beach features
- understanding how shoreline processes can impact beach front development

- reading and locating points on an aerial photograph
- preparing a technical write up of the beach, a description of the processes observed, and how those processes impact shoreline development

Students will travel to a local barrier island (usually Sullivan's Island) to study shoreline processes and their impact on beach front development. Students will begin on the inland side of the island, and traverse the island to the beach. Once at the beach, students will make a field profile of the area they traversed, as well as a profile sketch of the beach, showing all major parts of the beach. Students will then observe the geomorphic processes acting on the shoreline and how those processes impact the beach and beach front structures. Shoreline erosion control and protection structures will be pointed out to the students, and the impacts of the structures will be discussed. After returning from the field, the students will prepare a series of profiles of the barrier island and beach, as well as a write-up of the processes they observed and the impacts of those processes.
Designed for a geomorphology course
Uses online and/or real-time data
Uses geomorphology to solve problems in other fields

Observation of student work in the field and student participation of discussions in the field will help determine the student understanding. Additionally, the final paper submitted for the exercise with be graded to determine student understanding of the exercise.

Google Earth for imagery of the island.