littoral drift
McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Dictionary:
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littoral drift
(′lit·ə·rəl ′drift)
(geology) Materials moved by waves and currents of the littoral zone. Also known as longshore drift.
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littoral drift
Oxford Dictionary of Geography:
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longshore drift
The movement of sand and shingle along the coast. Waves usually surge onto a beach at an oblique angle and their swash takes sediment up and along the beach. The backwash usually drains back down the beach at an angle more nearly perpendicular to the coast, taking sediment with it. Thus there is a zig-zag movement of sediment along the coast. Longshore currents, initiated by waves, also move beach material along the coast. The term littoral drift is synonymous.
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McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Dictionary
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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