Researchers have learned that sand is in constant motion along California’s coastline, and only resides “temporarily” on an individual beach. An alongshore or littoral current is developed parallel to the coast as the result of waves breaking at an angle to the shoreline. This current and the turbulence of the breaking waves, which serves to suspend the sand, are the essential factors involved in moving sand along the shoreline. As waves approach the beach at an angle, the up-rush of water, or swash, moves sand at an angle
onto the shoreface. The backwash of water rushes down the shoreface perpendicular to the shoreline or a slight downcoast angle, thus creating a zigzag movement of sand. This zigzag motion effectively results in a current parallel to the shoreline. Littoral drift refers to the movement of entrained sand grains in the direction of the longshore current.
Littoral drift can be thought of as a river of sand moving parallel to the shore, moving sand from one coastal location to the next and so on until the sand is eventually lost to the littoral system. Littoral drift or transport in California can occur alongshore in two directions, upcoast or downcoast, dependent on the dominant angle of wave approach. Along the California coast, southward transport is generally referred to as downcoast and northward transport is considered upcoast. If waves approach perpendicular to the shoreline, there will be no net longshore movement of sand grains, no littoral current, and thus no littoral drift. Longshore transport for a reach of coast will typically include both upcoast and own coast transport, often varying seasonally.
