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Coastlines

Coasts are the eye catching and inspirational landscapes on the earth, they represent the
scenes of torrential storms and calm oceans. In the early beginning, humans have inhibited these
coastlines. The earth's land surface is covered by 10 percent of the coastlines. With the drastic
changes in the tides, waves and currents shoreline moves and coastlines are constantly changing
throughout the world. These constant changes cause the flooding of areas of tides on a daily
basis. Waves are the most important source which alters the coastal landscape. Similarly the
ocean currents which move thousands of kilometers are also directed towards the coastlines.
These currents have a huge impact on the climate of coastlines. The gravitational rise in the
water produces tides and these helps in molding the coastlines by transporting the sediments,
eroded bedrocks and by the transfer of wave energy across the shorelines by changing the depth
of water and the position of the coastline. These processes have great impact on the coastlines. In
Hawaii the islands and coastlines are affected by these waves, ocean currents and tides. These
have varied the Hawaii Island considerably.
In Hawaii there are five types of Open Ocean that occur. The two most prominent oceans
are North Pacific Winter waves on the North and North Western coasts. They cause the
disturbance to coral reefs. These have generated hurricane and swell on the Southwestern
coastline. In Hawaii the other remaining types of waves are trade wind, which is produced from
the northeast or east, while during the austral winter the long period of waves are generated from
the southern ocean and also the Kona storm generated waves (Moberly R, 1972). These latter
waves are mostly nondestructive. The source of large waves in Hawaii is the North Pacific
winter, which have a period of 14-20 s and are of about 3-7 meters in height, these waves can

also become breaking waves of height 10-12 meters. This huge magnitude Waves deposit large
quantity of coarse sand and sediments which abrade the living corals on the Hawaii coastlines.
In Hawaii coastlines the hurricanes also produce devastating waves which are the potential
cause of increased mortality to the coral reef buildings. They are not frequent and returns after a
period of up to 40 years (SJ, 1982) (Dollar SJ, 1993), they are highly destructive. The trade wind,
Waves generally reaches Hawaii from the northeast or east. The typical height of these waves is
1-3 meters and duration is 5-9 s (Flament AP, 1997), they persist for the duration of 90% during
summer.
These waves have a beneficial effect on the coral reef ecosystem of Hawaii coastlines and
cause increased exchange of nutrients between the coming water and organisms. The long
periods of the southerly swell in Hawaii coastlines rise in the southern oceans. The magnitude of
these waves is low about 1-2 meter and the duration are long about 14-22 s and occur mostly in
April and September. These also exert a positive impact on the coastlines.
The Kona storm waves are produced by the low pressure wind of winter and passes over the
coastlines from northwest to southeast. These waves are destructive and cause damage to the
coral reef and also produce the shoreline erosion. These movements of water and sediments to
the shorelines is determined by the wind pressure. These determinants interact to produce Long
Shore Drifts which moves sediment along the direction of coastlines in random fashion. These
actions of waves are important in altering the shape and sizes of the beaches at the coastlines.
Similar to the waves the ocean currents are also regulated by the wind pressure at the
surface of the ocean. 0n the coastlines of Hawaii the surface currents transfer water at the surface

of the oceans, whereas the submarine river flow deep below it. These currents of the ocean can
influence the coastlines. The ocean currents from California in the coastlines of Hawaii produce
cooler environment. Although there are phenomenon like El Nio which exert damaging effects
on the climate from the western coast of South America to Australia. These ocean currents also
alter the life cycle of marine creatures and relocate them to thousands of kilometers.
The gravitational force of the Moon and the Sun produce changes in the ocean surface and
generate the tides which shows the effect of celestial bodies on our planet. These external forces
are the regulator of the ocean surface without them the ocean exist as geo-potential surface. The
lunar tides are generated by the gravitational pull of the Moon, which occurs due to the
revolution of the Earth and the Moon in their orbit. The center of both the objects prevents the
falling of the Moon on the surface of the Earth. The change in climate has a huge impact on the
coastlines of Hawaii. The Aloha state of Hawaii is located in the center of the Pacific Ocean. The
coastlines of Hawaii are extremely vulnerable to the climate changes. The rise in sea level cause
the coastal flooding. According to the global climate change report the islands and coastlines of
the United States is experiencing are rising in air temperature and also the rise in sea levels.
There are evidences that these effects increase considerably in the near future.
According to another report, small islands are the most affected geological regions in the
world. The extreme climate changes have a major impact on them. The climate changes and
global warming exert an adverse impact on the environment of Hawaii. The tidal rise in sea level
provides the evidence of negative impact on the Island of Whale Skate in Hawaii. The tides have
wiped out the habitats of birds and turtles and other wildlife on the coastlines of Hawaii. The
Northwestern islands of the coastlines of Hawaii are at greater risk of rising sea level due to tides

and pose a threat to the endangered species. The nursing habitats are lost and threaten the
vulnerable species. This overall impact the rise in temperature in the coastal areas and increased
heat wave frequency leads to rise in heat related deaths. Similar events took place in befell
Europe in 2003 where several thousand died due to these changing climate effects of tides,
waves and ocean currents.

References
Dollar SJ, T. G. (1993). Recurrent storm disturbance and recovery: A long-term study
of coral communities in Hawaii. 12: 223233.
Flament AP, K. S. (1997). Ocean Atlas of Hawaii. School of Ocean, Earth Science and
Technology. Honolulu, Hawaii.: University of Hawaii.
Moberly R, C. T. (1972). Hawaiian beach systems. Hawaii Inst Geophys, 642, 95
pp.
SJ, D. (1982). Wave stress and coral community structure in Hawaii. Coral Reefs . 71
81 .

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