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The Sandy Beaches of the States of Sergipe-Alagoas

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Brazilian Beach Systems

Part of the book series: Coastal Research Library ((COASTALRL,volume 17))

Abstract

The beaches of Sergipe and Alagoas illustrate the role of geological inheritance and the effect of sediment grain size in controlling beach morphodynamics. Overall, under the same wave energy levels, beaches located on prograding sections of the coast have finer sediments and are dissipative, whereas on coastal sections starved of sediments the sand is coarser and the beaches are more reflective. This results from the fact that distant sourced sands, typical of large rivers, such as the São Francisco, are typically fine. These sands are transported southwards feeding the Sergipe shoreline, where dissipative beaches dominate.

Moreover locally sourced cliff sands, as is the case of the Alagoas shoreline, tends to be coarser, because they result from the physical breakdown, by wave action, of older coarser geologic units (e.g. Barreiras Formation). The erosive remnants and marine terraces of these older units, provide foundations for fringing reefs, which further protects the shoreline from wave energy. As a result reflective beaches are characterist of the Alagoas state.

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Acknowledgments

This study is a contribution of inctAmbTropic—Brazilian National Institute of Science and Technology for Tropical Marine Environments, CNPq/FAPESB Grants: 565054/2010-4 and 8936/2011. ACSP Bittencourt and JML Dominguez thank CNPq for a Research Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geosciences, UFBA, Campus Ondina, Salvador, BA, Brazil

    José Maria Landim Dominguez & Abílio Carlos da Silva Pinto Bittencourt

  2. School of Engineering and Information Technology, UNIFACS, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

    Adeylan Nascimento Santos

  3. Prefeitura Municipal de Camaçari, Camaçari, Bahia, Brazil

    Lucas do Nascimento

Authors
  1. José Maria Landim Dominguez
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  2. Abílio Carlos da Silva Pinto Bittencourt
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  3. Adeylan Nascimento Santos
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  4. Lucas do Nascimento
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Correspondence to José Maria Landim Dominguez .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Andrew D. Short

  2. Departamento de Geociências, Laboratório de Oceanografia Costeira, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil

    Antonio Henrique da F. Klein

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Dominguez, J.M.L., da Silva Pinto Bittencourt, A.C., Santos, A.N., do Nascimento, L. (2016). The Sandy Beaches of the States of Sergipe-Alagoas. In: Short, A., Klein, A. (eds) Brazilian Beach Systems. Coastal Research Library, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30394-9_11

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