A beach is a landform that stretches along the edge of a body of water, such as an ocean or a lake. It is made up of loose particles, such as sand, pebbles, and shells. Many beaches also contain grasses and seaweed, as well as animals such as crabs and birds. Beaches are often a favorite place for people to relax and enjoy the outdoors.
The sand that forms a beach is usually coarser than that found in rivers and streams. This is because the water that washes over a beach tends to have more force than that of water flowing in a river. The sand on a beach may be red, yellow, brown, or black. The color of a beach typically depends on its geologic history and how the sand was deposited by waves.
Some beaches are covered in colorful mats of seaweed, which provides a unique habitat for many marine organisms, such as shrimp and hermit crabs. Beaches can also be home to large schools of fish, such as sharks and stingrays. The sand and water on a beach can be extremely polluted, because waves wash in raw sewage, garbage from human activities, and other chemicals that can harm humans and wildlife.
Beaches are typically made up of 4 zones, referred to as the beach profile: the swash zone, the beach face, the wrack line, and the berm zone. The swash zone is located closest to the water, and the wrack zone is farther back from the water. The berm zone is the highest point on the beach.
The state of a beach can be affected by human activity, including the construction of seawalls. These structures can reduce the flow of sand and limit erosion. The loss of sand from a beach can be counteracted by using dredging to supply sand to the beach, which is known as beach nourishment.
Coastal development and the rerouting of rivers can also affect a beach. When these activities remove sand that would have been eroded by waves, the beach will shrink. Beach recession can also occur when sand is removed from a beach for other purposes, such as building homes and roads.
In the United States, the rules that govern private beach ownership vary by country and state. In general, however, coastal property owners only have control of the sand in front of their homes up to the high tide line (or, in some cases, the low tide line). Beach access advocates say that this rule is outdated and should be changed to reflect the reality that the public has a long-standing right to lateral use of the beach.
In the past, beach access laws were designed to ensure that workaday activities such as fishing and harvesting seaweed could continue regardless of who owned the beachfront land. As the popularity of beaches as recreation areas grew, however, these laws became obsolete. Many coastal property owners have attempted to restrict public access by erecting unauthorized barriers in the sand, such as signs and traffic cones.