Abstract
Abstract Narva-Jõesuu lies at the eastern southeastern coast of the Gulf of Finland, at the Estonian and Russian border. The beach is influenced by heavy winds, waves and drift ice attacks, which are seriously changing the beach. It is the longest sandy beach in Estonia and longshore drift on this beach has induced favorable conditions for the separation of heavy minerals. The aims of the study were to describe the development of the coast, discuss the influence of the destructed pier, and to identify the mineral composition of beach sands. The dynamics of the coast were mainly through comparison with older topographic maps (from the beginning of the 20th century). For mineral analysis the immersion method was applied. The heavy mineral content was found to increase from east to west. The pier was built in Narva-Jõesuu in 1987/88 for protecting the coast, but it is now broken. Consequently, storms are crashing against the coast and erosion of the sandy shore has started. Therefore, the pier should be restored to avoid further beach destruction.
Highlights
The Estonian coastline, which spans a distance of 3780 km, features various shore types: cliff, scarped, rocky, morainic, gravelly, sandy, silty, and artificial [1]
Mineral analysis is in this work connected with the coastal dynamics as the mineral content is influenced by the coastal processes, causing heavy mineral concentrations (HMC)
Orviku and Romm [15] reported longshore sediment movement and compensating coastal currents with nearshore flow moving along Narva Bay from west to east and further to the north
Summary
The Estonian coastline, which spans a distance of 3780 km, features various shore types: cliff, scarped, rocky, morainic, gravelly, sandy, silty, and artificial [1]. Narva-Jõesuu beach is one such sandy beach on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, extending from Meriküla village to the outflow of the Narva River with a length of approximately 9 km (Figure 1 and 2). A wellknown health resort was established in Narva-Jõesuu in 1894. This area is important as the eastern border of the European Union. Winds play a leading role in the formation of waves and are of vital significance for shore development, which is controlled by initial topography, existing rocks, sediments, and landforms, as well as crustal movement and artificial constructions [4]. The topographic maps and ortophotos were compared to see the changes in the beach and connected with this the destruction of the pier in the Narva-Jõesuu beach is discussed
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