Advancing Breakers and a Scalloped Shoreline

By Henry H. Mitchell, September 3, 2009.
Myrtle Beach State Park

Breakers near sunset, Myrtle Beach State Park


Today the waves were vigorous and approaching the beach at a slight angle pointing southward (away from the camera). At high tide the water was carving a sharp ledge into the shoreline, and leaving a complicated scalloped design that is discernible at the right of the photograph. As one sighted southward along the coastline, the scalloped pattern resembled the knobs on a lightning whelk.

The dramatic clouds overhead and the rhythmical advance of the white-capped breakers heightened the mathematical and musical senses of the seascape.


This guide to Myrtle Beach is sponsored by Mitchells Publications.