The study of sand mineralogy and grain rounding can help answer many questions of immediate concern to coastal engineers or to broader issues of beach preservation. The heavy-mineral contents of sands, together with statistical techniques such as factor analysis, can be used to delineate sediment sources, trace transport paths, and map out patterns of mixing during sediment dispersal. Variations in the degree of grain rounding can similarly be used to trace sand movements, or to obtain additional information concerning the history of the sediment particles. The techniques of studying sand mineralogies and grain rounding, and the types of problems they can address, are illustrated by research on the Oregon coast. Heavy mineral compositions of Oregon beach sands are the products of mixing contributions from four sources; the Columbia River on the north, the smaller rivers draining the Coast Range, the Umpqua River on the southern Oregon coast, and the Klamath Mountains of southern Oregon and northern California. Numerous headlands now prevent the longshore transport and mixing of sands from these multiple sources. The beach-sand compositions instead reflect along-coast mixing during Pleistocene lowered sea levels when blockage by headlands was absent. At that time there was a net littoral sand transport to the north, evident from the dispersal of Klamath-derived sands. With a rise in sea level and accompanying migrations of the beaches, headlands eventually interrupted the along-coast mixing of nearshore sands. Therefore, the north to south variation in compositions of beach sands is in part a relict pattern inherited from mixing during lowered sea levels. This has been modified during the past several thousand years by some additions of sand to the beaches from sea-cliff erosion and from rivers. However, studies of sediment mineralogy and grain rounding indicate that sands derived from most rivers draining the Coast Range are presently trapped in estuaries and so are not significant sources of beach sand. The Columbia River now supplies sand to Oregon beaches only to the first headland, Tillamook Head. At that headland there is a marked change in mineralogy and grain rounding with angular, recently supplied Columbia River sand to the north and rounded relict sand to the south.
Shoreline evolution and modern beach sand composition along a coastal stretch of the Tyrrhenian Sea, southern Italy
