André Luiz Carvalho da Silva

Comportamento morfológico e sedimentar da praia de Itaipuaçú (Maricá, RJ) nas últimas três décadas

The main objective of the present study, carried out in the Itaipuacu beach (Marica, Rio de Janeiro state), is to understand the morphological and sedimentary behaviour of this coastline along the last three decades. The methodology consisted of a continuous series of beach profiles employing Emerys method (1961) obtained seasonally along 8 years, associated with grain size analysis of 40 samples collected from the beach surface. The data was then compared to work published in the 70s. The results indicate that the western part of the beach arc is the most dynamic as consequence of local intense energy of S-SW storm waves. Morphology and sediment trends indicate that this dynamics decrease towards the east. The most abundant sediment is very coarse sand, however grain size decreases towards the east where a better sorted coarse sand is the most characteristic beach sediment. Comparison between this 8-year long series of profiles to profiles collected in the 70s shows that, despite the great dynamics of the entire beach and in particular, the western extreme, the beach has maintained the same morphology, more important, its width, which is not an indication of beach erosion at the present time.

Comportamento morfológico e sedimentar da praia de Itaipuaçú (Maricá, RJ)

The main objective of the present study, carried out in the Itaipuacu beach (Marica, Rio de Janeiro state), is to understand the morphological and sedimentary behaviour of this coastline along the last three decades. The methodology consisted of a continuous series of beach profiles employing Emery’s method (1961) obtained seasonally along 8 years, associated with grain size analysis of 40 samples collected from the beach surface. The data was then compared to work published in the 70’s. The results indicate that the western part of the beach arc is the most dynamic as consequence of local intense energy of S-SW storm waves. Morphology and sediment trends indicate that this dynamics decrease towards the east. The most abundant sediment is very coarse sand, however grain size decreases towards the east where a better sorted coarse sand is the most characteristic beach sediment. Comparison between this 8-year long series of profiles to profiles collected in the 70’s shows that, despite the great dynamics of the entire beach and in particular, the western extreme, the beach has maintained the same morphology, more important, its width, which is not an indication of beach erosion at the present time.