Kovaleva A., Chubarenko B., Pupienis D.

Grain size variability as an indicator of sediment transport alongshore the Curonian Spit (south-eastern Baltic Sea)

Abstract Sediment samples have been collected along the sea coast of the Curonian Spit in summer season of 2011, 2014 and 2015-years. According to grain size analysis the shoreline and the berm consist of well and very well-sorted sand, medium-sized on the southern (Russian) part of the spit, medium and fine on the northern (Lithuanian) part. ‘McLaren’ method was applied to determine the long-shore sediment transport directions. Mismatch of results with those obtained by methods based on simulation of resulted wave action did not prove the hypothesis that ‘McLaren’ method was able to reveal long-term resulted sediment transport. The hypothesis that ‘McLaren’ method indicates the directions of alongshore sediment transport during the stormy conditions preceding the sampling period was not proved also. It was concluded that application of ‘McLaren’ method in respect of the Curonian Spit shore, which is a transit one without permanent sources or sinks of sediments, is not efficient. ‘McLaren’ method was applied to describe the cross-shore sediment movement. It was found that deposits from the trough (located between the bar and shoreline) are transported to the shoreline that is in a line with the known fact about cross-shore transport of bottom material during the calm weather.

Doi https://doi.org/10.5200/baltica.2016.29.13

Keywords sediment transport • grain size analysis • grain-size distribution statistics •‘McLaren’ method

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