How long does it take to create a sandy beach?

Answer 1

There is only one basic source of sand for a beach, and that is from rivers. Secondarily, some beaches are created by ocean currents such as long-shore migration, where the sand is being moved along the shore to spots it may not have been before.

As far as river deposition, it will vary according to the sediment load of the river. The Mississippi River moves on average about 436,000 tons of sediment in a day. That one day's deposit of sediment probably has enough sand in it to create a fairly nice beach. Since the sand will most likely be deposited in a mouth bar or somewhere else on the delta, it may not be in the form of a beach, but that process is the source of almost all sand on beaches. Even beaches covered with volcanic sediments like in Hawaii still most often depend on a river or stream to carry the sediment to the beach. In an extreme volcanic eruption a beach of volcanic ash might be deposited in a few hours.

Long-shore drift creates many beaches, and is a relatively slow process. On some coastlines the wave action variation between winter and summer will make some sandy beaches disappear in winter and come back in summer, so in these cases it may only take a few months to create the beach.

The part of your question that you didn't ask: How long does it take to create the sand on a beach? That answer could be thousands to millions of years, as rock such as granite has to be weathered and eroded to create the sand grains that make up most sand.

Answer 2

Depends. Some factors include how much erosion there is going on, how gentle or how stormy the location is, is it a sheltered beach, is there a headland nearby? Are you starting from scratch? How big does it need to be before its a sandy beach?

I don't know any specifics, but if this beach was to the side of a big headland, I think it could take up to a hundred years, but probably less depending on the wave action. The shore erodes about half a meter each year, and much of that would deposit as sand in other locations. I seriously doubt it would take as long as "millions of years" because things are changing constantly and violently at coastlines.

Answer 3

From weeks to 100's of years.

Answer 4

5 minutes.

When counting the time to order and wait for the truck with sand to arrive.... a bit longer.

Answer 5

Millions of years.

Answer 6

DEPENDS ON HOW BIG THE BEACH IS

Answer 7

no they are common on both active boundaries and passive boundaries

Answer 8

How many dump trucks do you have?

Answer 9

9789798431321869748651.45 seconds .

Answer 10

I don t know answer for that......I don t lie you......