What is a rip current? Describe the shoreline’s shape as a result of rip currents, and the cause of the distinct shape
What will be an ideal response?
ANSWER: As waves pile up water onshore, water streams back offshore to create a rip current. Some high-energy beaches show a prominent scalloped shoreline with cusps five to ten meters apart, a suspicious sign of rip-current danger. Such rip currents can persist for long periods. Permanent rip currents can develop at groins, jetties, or rock outcrops, where water flowing against those structures piles up and is forced to flow offshore along the structure. A scalloped beach may form in an area of rip currents because each current erodes sand as it flows offshore, leaving the beach slightly indented at the point of offshore flow.?
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