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OVERVIEW

The longest of the muddy coasts around the world, is


the 1600 km along the Guianas. It is strongly impacted
by the mud supply from the Amazon. This literature
review will focus on the movement of the mud-bank
along the Guianas

Bayeeshmaal Ramsundar - 1015737

MUD-BANK EMN 3102 Project Methodology

MOVEMENTS
LITERATURE REVIEW
ANALYSIS OF MUD-BANK MOVEMENT ALONG THE GUIANAS
COAST

Muddy shores and neighboring shore-faces are found along several open coasts of
the world. They are generally associated with the dispersal pathways of rivers that
discharge large quantities of fine-grained sediment. According to Wright and
Nittrouer (1995), deltas constitute the typical setting for such muddy coast.
A delta is a landform that forms from the deposition of sediment carried by a
river, as the flow leaves its mouth and enters slower moving or standing water.
They revealed that long-shore redistribution of sediment from high discharge
rivers may lead to the formation of significant sections of muddy coasts down-
drift of sediment source(s). Examples include the Mississippi Chenier coast
mentioned by McBride, Taylor, and Byrnes (2007), the Gulf of Papua mentioned
by Walsh et al. (2004), the East China Sea down-drift of the Chanjiang/Yangtze
mentioned by Liu et al. (2006), and the Mekong delta coast mentioned by Tamura
et al. (2010). According to (Allison et al. 2000), the longest of these muddy
coasts, however, is the 1600 km along the Guianas, sometimes called by the
Spanish loanword Guayanas (Las Guayanas), are a region in the north-eastern
South America which includes Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
Specifically, it falls between the mouths of the Amazon and the Orinoco rivers in
the north-eastern South America which is strongly impacted by the mud supply
from the Amazon. According Allison et al. (2000) the Amazon is the world's
largest river system with a drainage basin of 6.1106 km2. The mean annual water
discharge 900 km upstream of the mouth, has been estimated at 173,000 m3s1 by
Martinez et al. (2009) from continuous gauging between 1995 and 2007.
Zone of Mud-banks by Allison et al. (2000)

Origin and Formation of Mud-bank

Gratiot (2010) concluded that the overall budget of sediment that migrates along
the coast of Guiana is composed of about 95% of sediment from the Amazon and
the rest from local rivers. Milliman and Meade (1983), Wright and Nittrouer
(1995) and Dagg et al. (2004) further discovered that about 90% of this total
sediment is considered as being composed of silt and clay. An initial investigation
of this region during the AMASSEDS project in 1989 to 1991 Allison, Nittrouer,
and Kineke (1995), found that nearshore accumulation of Amazon mud, starts
from the erosion of the river mouth adjacent to the southern Amapa coast. This
suggests that the northern Amapa coast is the area of mud-bank generation for the
entire northeastern coast of South America at present.
Source and Movements of mud-banks by Augustinus (2004)

Gardel and Gratiot (2005) discovered that every year, 15 or more actively
translating mud-banks moves throughout the 1600 km coast of the Guianas. These
banks are spaced at intervals of 15 km to 25 km. They are 5 m thick, 10 km to 60
km long and 20 km to 30 km wide and they migrate at velocities from 1 km/year
to more than 5 km/year.

Migration of Mud-banks

The most important drivers of the migrating coastal system at this scale are the
continuous silt transport and the wave action, which is determined by the
northeast trade wind. Gratiot, Gardel, and Anthony (2007) confirmed what
Kineke et al. (1996) suggested, that the Amazon influenced coast is affected by
the northeast trade winds which are mainly active from January to May. These
winds generate waves from an east to northeast direction. Augustinus (2004)
developed three scales of mud-bank developments. These scales are characterized
by specific patterns of accretion and erosion. Accretion is the process where
sediments come together to form the mud-banks along the coast. The scales are as
follows; a mesoscale, the lowest level at which the coast can be considered a unit,
a macro-scale and a mega-scale. It should be noted that the trade wind plays a key
role at all three levels and is the driving force at the macroscale.
He went on further and determined that at the lowest scale level, the Suriname
coast is dominated by the mud-banks, where the sediments steadily migrate
westward, due to deposition at the west side and erosion at the east side.
Augustinus (2004) concluded that suspended silt is transported by a westward
coastal current with maximum velocities of 1 ms-1 at the surface and of 0.10 ms-1
to 0.35 ms-1 near the bottom. The bi-diurnal tide, average amplitude 1.8 m,
approaches the coast more or less perpendicular. Tidal currents are only important
in the mouths of rivers. As a consequence of the high content of suspended
particles in the coastal waters, fluid mud is formed and deposited at the western
side of the mud-banks, especially in periods of strong trade winds when water
turbulence is high.

Mud-bank migration rates can vary significantly both alongshore and in time,
reflecting variability in bank and inter-bank dynamics. A 44 year record (1960
2004) of the ERA-40 wave dataset was used by Gratiot, Gardel, and Anthony
(2007), together with complementary field investigations in French Guiana, to
define both event scale and longer term patterns of mud-bank migration.

According to Gardel and Gratiot (2005), The banks in French Guiana exhibited
low multi annually averaged migration rates (0.2 km/year to 1.8 km/year) in the
early 1980s and high rates (1.8 km/year to 3.0 km/year) from the mid-1990s to
2005. The mean mud-bank migration rate from 1995 to 2000 was twice that from
1979 to 1984, even though the wave forcing parameter, identified by Gratiot,
Gardel, and Anthony (2007) from the 44-yr record of the ERA-40 wave dataset
was only 33% higher. They said that there are several potential reasons for these
kinds of variations. These include unknown sediment sourcing aspects such as
variations in mud supply from the Amazon and fluctuations in the temporal frame
of mud-bank formation. Following the research of Eisma, Augustinus, and
Alexander (1991), Allison, Nittrouer, and Kineke (1995) and Allison et al. (2000),
they stated that the changes in intensity and the direction of trade winds and their
effects on waves have been held responsible for temporal variability in mud-bank
migration rates. They used the angle of incidence of winds as a replacement for
assessing time-based variations in the intensity of wave-generated longshore drift,
and, hence, mud-bank migration rates.

From observations by Allison et al. (2000), differences in migration rates may


also account in part for variations in the spacing between the banks. Temporal
variations may also be generated by changes in distant storm tracks and intensity
patterns in the North Atlantic, such as those associated with the North Atlantic
Oscillation and El Nio and La Nia events. El Nio and La Nia events are a
natural part of the global climate system. La Nia event is where trade winds
strengthen bringing more warm water and increasing rainfalls. Whereas in an El
Nio event, the trade winds weaken, causing the warm water to flow back
towards the east, and would result in dryness. Anthony and Dolique (2004),
discovered that in French Guiana, there are local irregularities where nearshore
bedrock boulders and rocky headlands traps mud, and a later discovery was made
by Gardel and Gratiot (2005) where they stated that river mouths and river
discharge patterns have also been raised to be a source of migration rate
variability.

Augustinus (2004) observed that between 1947 and 1966 there is a net erosion of
the coast, while between 1966 and 1981 there is a net accretion. The fact that
previously existing muddy coast are becoming silty or sandy coast is not believed
to result from a change of incoming sediments but very probably, corresponds to a
loss of trapping capacity of the coastal frontier. Anthony et al. (2010) mentioned
that this periodicity in the sediment supply due to trade winds has been observed
on seasonal timescales on the northern Amapa shoreface. Augustinus (2004)
hypothesized that the seasonal and decadal trade wind cycles vary the sediment
supply to the Cabo Cassipore mudcape (erosion cycle induced by mudbank
migration) and to the estuarine mouth of the adjacent Cassipore River, resulting in
alternating periods of formation and sediment starvation in the coastal zone.
Mudbank and mangrove dynamics

Allison et al. (2000) stated that over time, the rhythmic nature of these alternating
phases has an overwhelming impact on the coast, not only rapid shoreline
accretion and erosion, but also important ecological changes involving the
development and destruction of mangrove forests. He went on further to say that
the dynamic connection of a mud bank with the shore commonly creates an
intertidal mudflat of several square kilometers in a few months, with very dense
mangrove development in a few years, followed by rapid erosion of mangroves
and their substrate during the inter-bank phase. Fiot and Gratiot (2006) discovered
that the accumulation of mud in the intertidal area is driven by wave actions and
is followed by consolidation and short-lived cracking during phases of emersion,
at low tide. Emersion also referred to as egress, is the action of going or coming
out. They went on to say that the process contributes to a very efficient
mechanical trapping of Avicenna seeds in front of the ocean and to mangrove
colonization. This process is ephemeral and cracks only occur during specific
time windows in relation with the emersion during low tide at a given altitude
above mean sea level. Gratiot (2010) said that mangroves provide an additional
trapping mechanism for sediment and also serve to anchor sediments against
removal by wave attack. He went on further to say that muddy coasts fringed by
mangroves belt of several hundreds of meters do not need any human-made
defenses against the ocean. According to Winterwerp et al. (2007), along such
coasts, the energy coming from the ocean is basically dissipated by two
complementary processes. One of such process is whereby swells are efficiently
dissipated near shore, because of the visco-plastic properties of mudflats and
some liquefaction processes. This process reduces strongly, the wave energy
during their path in shallow water, typically in the range 25m to 5m. The other
process states that in shallow water, short period waves are principally damped by
breaking in the swash zone or by dissipation among the mangrove trunks. Swash
zones are characterized by a turbulent layer of water that washes up on the beach
after an incoming wave has broken.
Gratiot (2010) stated that because of human related activities (drainage channel,
aquaculture), the addition of natural mangrove has been reduced to tens of meters
wide (or zero for some places) and the connection of mudbank to the wide area of
mature mangrove has been cut down by water channels. This is now limiting the
arrival of seeds to the ocean and has reduced considerably the capacity of natural
vegetalisation of mudflats. As a direct consequence, the wave energy previously
damped by mangrove is now being damped by breaking of waves that has
resuspended the sediments and this results in erosion from the mud-bank back
into the ocean.

Concern over the sea defenses is always on the local agenda. Gratiot (2010)
emphasized that diminishing mangrove population along the coast, decreases the
natural defenses of the coastline against wave action, erosion and flooding. Apart
from this, mangroves also have ecological benefits for local aquatic life and spin
off benefits for local fishery.

Conclusion

The longest of the muddy coasts around the world, is the 1600 km along the
Guianas. It is strongly impacted by the mud supply from the Amazon. The
Amazon is the world's largest river system and is responsible for 95% of the
sediment that is being transported along the coast. An initial investigation of this
region, found that nearshore accumulation of Amazon mud starts from the erosion
of the river mouth adjacent to the southern Amapa coast. After the river mouth
has been eroded, sediments are formed, which are then carried by the ocean west
along the coast, where it is deposited. The most important drivers of the migrating
coastal system at this scale are the continuous silt transport and the wave action,
which is determined by the northeast trade wind. These phases have an
overwhelming impact on the coast, not only rapid shoreline accretion and erosion,
but also important ecological changes involving the development and destruction
of mangrove forests.
REFERENCES

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