FORESHORE DEPOSITIONAL PATTERNS ALONG THE RHODE ISLAND SOUTHSHORE |
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| Authors: | John J Fisher J Richard Jones Eugene Tynan Earle Hagstrom |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Geology , University of Rhode Island , Kingston, Rhode Island 02881;2. Department of Geology and Planetary Science , University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260 |
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| Abstract: | An application of polynomial curve fitting to sediment cumulative frequency distributions is presented to delineate the foreshore depositional patterns along the barrier beaches of the Rhode Island southshore. The analysis is based on 92 sampled stations where data for beach geometry, tidal stage, and sediment size were collected. Using the size-frequency classes obtained from sieving the foreshore sediment samples at 0.25 O intervals and fitting third-degree polynomial equations to these data, over 94% of the variation within the sediment cumulative frequency distributions is explained. The four curve coefficients (a, b, c, d) derived from the predicted third-degree equation are used in a discriminant function analysis to test the relationship between the curve shape and sediment source. Comparison of the discriminant scores with the respective station locations suggests that a series of Pleistocene headlands which occur as discrete points along the beach are serving as independent sources of sediment for the system. |
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