Characterizing shoreline processes in
barnacle beaches: The Salton Sea, California
Wilk, Jewels,
Kraal, Erin, Simpson,
Edward, and Heness, Elizabeth, 2011, Characterizing shoreline
processes in barnacle beaches: The Salton Sea, California [abs]:
Geological Society of America - Annual Meeting in Minneapolis,
Minnesota (9–12 October 2011), Vol. 43, No. 5, p. 372.
Beach sedimentation
processes vary depending on environmental conditions. The Salton
Sea, located in the interior arid region of southern California, is
a unique lacustrine shoreline composed largely of transported
barnacles. Currently, barnacles thrive in the Salton Sea’s
hypersaline conditions. Barnacle growth clusters are broken off
their substrate, most likely by storms, and transported shoreward.
This unique barnacle accumulation is the only known lacustrine,
barnacle-dominated shoreline and possesses some surface features
that are exclusive to this beach setting.
We measured topographic profiles and collected grain size
percentages from eight locations at the Salton Sea. The beaches are
orientated approximately north-south along the north-eastern shore.
Here, wind and storm events produce the highest waves and
sedimentation rates forming beaches approximately 64m wide. The
average and maximum ridge slopes are 0.098 and 0.16, respectively.
The slopes of these beaches from water level to back beach average
0.031. The largest sediment grains (articulated barnacle clusters)
dominate the surface of the beaches at and near lake level.
Preliminary bulk density calculations of the barnacles average 0.52
g/cc. This low-bulk density gives the beach a unique mantle of
articulated barnacle clusters near the shoreline. Ultimately, these
mantle deposits are reworked to a thickness of up to 2m in some
locations. From the shoreline to the back beach area, there is a
decrease in articulated and an increase in fragmented barnacles. The
barnacles are transported according to a series of shore processes
including storm-wave action producing wash-overs and longshore
drift. Landward dipping cross strata characterize wash-overs with
the cross strata made up of finer-grained sediment fluctuating
between mixed amounts of sand, silt and fragmented barnacles.
Internal beach ridges have lake-ward dipping cross strata composed
of single and fragmented barnacles with minor sand component.
Combined, this data provides a picture of a rapidly deposited,
barnacle dominated lacustrine beach setting.
Characterizing shoreline processes in
barnacle beaches: The Salton Sea, California 
Beach sedimentation
processes vary depending on environmental conditions. The Salton
Sea, located in the interior arid region of southern California, is
a unique lacustrine shoreline composed largely of transported
barnacles. Currently, barnacles thrive in the Salton Sea’s
hypersaline conditions. Barnacle growth clusters are broken off
their substrate, most likely by storms, and transported shoreward.
This unique barnacle accumulation is the only known lacustrine,
barnacle-dominated shoreline and possesses some surface features
that are exclusive to this beach setting.