Friday Field Foto #82: Mouth of the Russian River
This week’s Friday Field Foto isn’t technically from “the field” — never really did any field work, nor was it a field trip. But the beauty of “the field” is that it is everywhere … so I’m countin’ it!
A few weekends ago, my wife and I went up north to get away from regular life for a couple days. On the way up Hwy 1, we stopped to look down at where the Russian River empties into the Pacific Ocean.
Russian River mouth, California coast (© 2009 clasticdetritus.com)
I’ve always had a thing for river mouths — they are very interesting transition zones in terms of surface processes and sedimentation. In this case, the Russian River has no chance in building a delta that protrudes out into the ocean … the Pacific Ocean will continue to win that battle for some time.
Russian River catchment, northern California (credit: Wikipedia)
But, what has formed in this area is a nice beach. We didn’t have time to go down to the beach on this trip … but from the looks of my photo above, I bet this is a great area to check out supercritical flow and maybe some antidunes.
Russian River mouth, California coast (credit: GoogleEarth)
Happy Friday!
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Clastic Detritus 
Been there, done that!
It’s a very cool beach, with tons of seals. There’s a nice tombolo to the south, and looking out to sea there is a forest of stacks. A good place to watch the sun set.
I’ve been there, done that too.
Did you pickup any bits of jade on the beach? The last time I was there, the wind was howling and we couldn’t stand on the beach for being sand-blasted.
Mike … no, I didn’t get a chance to go down to the beach this time … hopefully when I do we won’t be sandblasted.
Hi,
I stumbled on this page looking into rivers emptying into oceans. What are the possible out comes? Delta, estuary, sandbars, mudflats? What factors create what?
Jeremy … there are many outcomes and numerous interacting factors. Too much to go into on a blog post, much less a comment thread. A good text from a sedimentologic/stratigraphic point of view is “Sedimentary Environments: Processes, Facies, and Stratigraphy” by H.G. Reading.
Helpful and informative. Thank you.