Beach cusps (original) (raw)

Beach cusps are shoreline formations made up of various grades of sediment in an arc pattern. The horns are made up of coarser material and the embayment contains finer sediment. They can be found all over the world and are most noticeable on shorelines with coarser sediment such as pebble beaches. However, they can occur with sediment of any size. They nearly always occur in a regular pattern with cusps of equal size and spacing appearing along stretches of the shoreline. These cusps are most often a few metres long. However, they may reach 60 m (200 ft) across. Although the origin of beach cusps has yet to be proven, once cusps have been created they are a self-sustaining formation. This is because when an oncoming wave hits the horn of a beach cusp, it is split and forced into two direc