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Date Permissions Signed

9-1-2018

Date of Award

Fall 1984

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Geology

First Advisor

Schwartz, Maurice L.

Second Advisor

Suczek, Christopher A., 1942-2014

Third Advisor

Terich, Thomas

Abstract

Kitsap County is located entirely within the Puget Sound Lowland in northwestern Washington State. It has a crenulated coastline 352 km in length. The Puget Sound Lowland, and Kitsap County in particular, is characterized by glacial landforms and sediments. Glacial activity is responsible for the shape and depth of the various water-bodies comprising Puget Sound, which is subject to mixed, semi-diurnal tides.

Net shore-drift is the process by which sediment, supplied to the margin of a landmass by subaerial and wave-induced erosional processes, is transported parallel to the coast by longshore drift and beach drift over a period of many years.

The fetch, the distance of open water over which the wind can blow unimpeded, determines the size of the waves generated by any combination of wind velocity and duration. The maximum fetches to which the shores of Kitsap County are exposed are 48 km in Hood Canal and 56 km in Puget Sound (University of Washington, 1954).

There are 99 unit cells of net shore-drift, ranging from 50 m to 26 km in length, in Kitsap County. The pattern of net shore-drift in Kitsap County most closely correlates with fetch, due to the crenulated nature of its coast. The use of geomorphic features and sedimentologic trends as indicators of net shore-drift are far superior to, and more reliable than, wave-hindcasting or mathematical-modeling techniques in determining the direction of sediment transport in such regions.

Type

Text

Keywords

Net shore-drift, sediment transportation, Kitsap County, Direction of sediment transport

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

1088509203

Subject – LCSH

Littoral drift--Washington (State)--Kitsap County; Coast changes--Washington (State)--Kitsap County; Shorelines--Washington (State)--Kitsap County

Geographic Coverage

Kitsap County (Wash.)

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this thesis for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.

Included in

Geology Commons

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