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International Journal of Marine Science 2014, Vol.4, No.43, 1-9
http://ijms.biopublisher.ca
1
Research Report Open Access
Beach Profiles and Sediments, a Case of Caspian Sea
Alireza Firoozfar
1,
Mir Ahmad Lashteh Neshaei
2
, Alan P Dykes
3
1. University of Zanjan, Iran
2. Guilan University, Iran
3. Kingston University, London, UK
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2014, Vol.4, No.43 doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0043
Received: 13 Mar., 2014
Accepted: 16 Apr., 2014
Published: 29 Jul., 2014
© 2014 Firoozfar et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Firoozfar et al., 2014, Beach Profiles and Sediments, a Case of Caspian Sea,
I
nternational Journal of Marine Science, Vol.4, No.43, 1-9
(doi:
10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0043)
Abstract
The Caspian Sea is a closed depression and possesses almost all of the different coastal types existing along the world's
coastlines. This research aimed to evaluate the linkage between sedimentary characteristics and beach morphology on the southern
Caspian Sea coast. All available maps were reviewed and three field surveys were performed. The first survey gave a general insight
into the study area; the second was aimed at nearshore sediment sampling, nearshore hydrography and shore topography; and the third
survey evaluated deep sediment characteristics and provided hydrographic profiles. Laboratory tests were performed on sediment
samples and, finally, a database was created including information about beach profiles and sediment characteristics. Data analysis
showed that there is a direct correlation between beach gradient and sediment grain size: the steeper the coasts, the coarser the grain size
and vice versa. On the sandy beaches of the southern Caspian Sea, the sediment grain size distribution was also correlated with beach
face slope.
Keywords
Beach profile; Sediments; Caspian Sea; Beach face slope
1 Introduction
The Caspian Sea, with a surface area of around
380,000 km
2
and a volume of about 78,000 km
3
, is
the largest inland sea on Earth. It is a remnant of the
Tethys Ocean (Kroonenberg et al., 2007) and five
different countries border this sea, namely Iran,
Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia
(Figure 1). This sea measures around 1,180 km
North-South (36°-47°N) and as much as 480 km
East-West (49°-54°E). It has no tides, and its salinity
is only one third of that of the oceans, increasing
from 5 g l
–1
in the north, where the Volga River
flows into the sea, to 13 g l
–1
in the south (Peeters et
al., 2000). The basin of the Caspian Sea can be
subdivided into three parts (Froehlich et al., 1999;
Kaplin and Selivanov, 1995):
A northern part, with a mean water depth of only 10 m,
Acentral part, where the water depth increases up to 788m,
A southern part, wherein the water depth increases
up to 1025 m.
Although a range of small and large rivers feed the
Caspian Sea, from its all sides, its cachment extends
mostly to the north, representing most of the riverine
inflow with the Volga. Its mean annual discharge
was around 238 km
3
with measured variations of up
to -11% and +29% over the period 1978 to 1993.
This river contributes more than 82% of the influx to
the Caspian Sea (Shiklomanov et al., 1995). The
sediment flux associated with the Volga River
discharge has created an extensive delta system with
a gentle offshore and onshore gradient, and accounts,
in part, for the shallowness of the northern part of
the Caspian Sea (Overeem et al., 2003).
During the 20
th
century, the Caspian Sea showed
profound changes in level. Its water level dropped
by 3 m between 1929 and 1977 and then largely
recovered with a 2.6 m rise from 1978 to 1995. The
causes of such fluctuations are not yet entirely clear
(Kroonenberg et al., 2007; Boomer et al., 2005).
Most studies, however, emphasize the climate change