Salmon Creek Field Trip

Salmon Creek flows into the ocean just north of Bodega Bay (Google map, topo map). Your task for today is to observe the landscape and write a description of the dunes, the river, and the beach. Include a sketch if appropriate and answer a few of the questions below along the way.

Dunes

• Estimate the size of the dunes.
• Is there a preferred orientation to the dunes, or smaller-scale structures on them?
• How stable are these dunes? How does vegetation affect the stability?
• How have people tried to manage these dunes? Have they been successful?

Beach

• Look around and make a few notes about the beach and the waves crashing onto the beach.
• 
  How is the beach sediment moving today? Is there sediment transport happening in the swash zone? Longshore drift?
• What does the beach cross-sectional profile look like now? What is the slope of the beach? What will the profile look like in a few months after the first big storm?
• Are there visible layers in the subsurface? How did they form? How thick are the individual layers? How continuous are they?
• What does the beach look like in map view? Are there cusps? Rip currents?
• Is the beach eroding back into the dunes today? This year?
• How far offshore are the waves breaking?
• What is the source of sand to this stretch of beach?
• If you were looking at a sedimentary rock, how could you distinguish between a beach deposit and a dune deposit?

River

• Is there active sediment transport in the river channel? Are there any interesting ripple or dune patterns in the water?
• What evidence can you see for river migration?
• Does the river connect to the ocean today? Do you think it will at any point this year?
• Do you think it would have a stronger or weaker connection at the height of the rainy season? Why?
• What sets the width of the stream here?
• Is there any interesting biology utilizing the lagoon area?

Extras

• Looking north you will see that the character of the landscape is quite different. There are cliffs, sea stacks, and a rocky beach in contrast with the dunes and sandy beach south of Salmon Creek. Speculate on why this might be. Hint (same hint as for Point Reyes).
• How have humans affected this landscape? Think about the hillslopes, river sediments, aeolian sediments, dairy farming, shellfishing, and tourism.
• Make up your own interesting question and then answer it.