Characteristics of sea-cliff erosion induced by a strong winter storm in the eastern Mediterranean

Changes in sea-cliff morphologies along the 30-km-long Sharon Escarpment segment of Israel's weakly cemented Mediterranean eolianite cliff line were analyzed to gain quantitative insights into erosion characteristics associated with a high-energy winter storm (10–20 year return interval). Groun...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Quaternary research 2013-07, Vol.80 (1), p.20-32
Main Authors: Katz, Oded, Mushkin, Amit
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cliffs
Coastal cliff
Erosion
Erosion mechanisms
Extreme storm
Failure
Intervals
LiDAR
Original Articles
Retreat
Slopes
Storms
Winter storms
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Summary:Changes in sea-cliff morphologies along the 30-km-long Sharon Escarpment segment of Israel's weakly cemented Mediterranean eolianite cliff line were analyzed to gain quantitative insights into erosion characteristics associated with a high-energy winter storm (10–20 year return interval). Ground-based repeat LiDAR measurements at five sites along the cliff line captured perturbations of cliff stability by basal wave scouring during the storm, subsequent post-storm gravity-driven slope failures in the cliff face above, and return of the system to transient stability within several months. Post-storm erosion, which amounted to 70% of the total volume of cliff erosion documented, resulted in dramatic local effects of up to 8 m of cliff-top retreat. And yet, at the larger scale of the 30-km cliff line examined, erosion during the storm and the year that followed affected less than 4% of the cliff length and does not appear to be above the average cliff-length annual erosion implied by previously published decadal-scale retreat rates along this sea cliff. Our results do not support a direct association between strong storm events and elevated erosion and retreat at the cliff-line scale.
ISSN:0033-5894
1096-0287
DOI:10.1016/j.yqres.2013.04.004