Abstract
Changes in the magnitude of oil pollution on five prototype study beaches on Israel's northern Mediterranean coast had been monitored at 2- to 4-weekly intervals from 21 November 1980 to 19 March 1981. Statistical analyses of these changes were employed to rank the beaches in order of decreasing self-cleaning capacity. Records of storm-induced wave data records for the winter of 1980–1981 were correlated to incidence of change in the magnitude of subsurface tarball pollution and the rate of emplaced fuel sample dissipation on the study beaches. Specific wave breaking processes, overtopping of offshore obstacles and wave refraction were singled out as accelerating or retarding wave energy transfer to the polluted beaches. Attribution of the occurrence of specific local littoral processes to observed change in beach pollution magnitude made it possible to assess potential oil spill damage. Elucidation of the causative processes provided theoretical corroboration for beach sensitivity ranking established earlier by statistical analysis.
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