The nature, source and directions of transport of beach materials on the southern and southwestern coasts of Cyprus

Abstract

Forty-eight profiles across six beaches on the southern and southwestern coasts of Cyprus were surveyed. Nine sediment samples were collected from each profile, three samples from each environment: the inshore, foreshore and backshore. The directions of seasonal littoral drift and net littoral were observed on the six shores. Besides this the direction of net littoral drift was also observed on seven other shores.

Both texture and mineral composition of beach sediments display a great deal of local variation. Sediments are, however, well sorted, nearly symmetrical and leptokurtic on pocket beaches. Their mineral compositions also have a close relationship with the nearby exposed parent rocks on the shores. They are high-carbonate beaches where low-Mg and high-Mg calcite minerals are common, the coarsest carbonate clasts being organic fragments carried by waves from the sea bottom. Quartz is the most common non-carbonate mineral.

On the long, straight or slightly curving beaches on the southern coast the textural parameters exhibit great variability, especially between the different shore zones. Beach material is moderately or poorly sorted, indicating a closer relationship to the mineral suite of the Troodos ophiolite complex than that of the adjacent coastal rocks. These beaches are low- or intermediate-carbonate beaches being composed of mixed materials of river-borne sediments, principally non-carbonates carried from inland, and clasts consisting mainly of carbonates abraded by waves from the cliffed and rocky shores. Pyroxenes, feldspar, quartz and low-Mg calcite are the common minerals on these beaches.

The direction of littoral transport on the southwestern coast is mainly eastward and on the pocket beaches mainly towards the bay-head. On the southern coast east of Akrotiri Peninsula, which is the leeside in relation to prevailing western winds, seasonal and net littoral drifts may be in opposite directions and mix river-borne ophiolitic material with coastal carbonate material.