CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Evenson, E.B.; and Cohn, B.P.
Date : 1979
Title : The ice-foot complex : its morphology, formation and role in sediment transport and shoreline protection.
Publication : Zeitschrift fur Geomorphologie, N.F.
Issue : 23(1):
Page(s) : 58-75.
Abstract
Ice-foot complexes characteristically form along Great Lakes and other high- and mid-latitude shorelines during the winter. These accumulations of various forms of ice and incorporated sediment assume morphologies ranging from irregular linear ridges to lines of regularly spaced ice-cones. An ice-foot nomenclature based on the morphology of the wave built features and the position of these features relative to the shoreline and open water allows accurate description of the end member forms. ... On Lake Ontario, more than 60 percent of all incoming wave energy occurs during the winter period when the beach is protected by the ice-foot complex. During this period of time, the ice-foot functions as a natural sea wall by preventing waves from reaching the shore. The zone of wave attack is displaced progressively lakeward as the ice-foot complex develops and wave energy is dissipated against the complex in deeper water. As a result of shoreline protection by the ice-foot complex, the rate of beach retreat is significantly less than that which would occur if the beach were exposed to the high energy winter waves.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology