Sunday, January 04, 2009

Overton Beach




Overton Beach is a boat launch way up on the north arm of Lake Mead. At Boulder Beach, the waves were able to build small beaches, but not erode the shoreline itself. Here, the shoreline is steeper and the lake has cut a series of subtle strandlines and one not so subtle scarp. I suppose the height of the bluff reflects both the length of time that the lake remained at that particular level, the magnitude of storms that occurred during that period, and the steepness and erodibility of the shoreline itself. Here, the shoreline is on a pair of projecting ridges that appear to have been built as breakwaters when the marina was created, so they consist of nothing but loose gravel.

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