Information about Florida’s seashore beaches along the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
Beaches are the result of wave and wind action on the shoreline. Waves deposit sand grains that are suspended in the water near the shoreline. Wind blows the sand grains further inland.
The beach berm is the deposit of material comprising the active shoreline, which in Florida is mostly sand. The berm has a crest (top) and a face slopes down towards the water from the crest. At the very bottom of the face, there may be a trough, and further seaward one or more longshore bars, which are slightly raised, underwater embankments formed where the waves first start to break.
The sand deposit of the beach may can extend well inland from the berm crest, where there may be evidence of one or more older crests (the storm beach) resulting from very large storm waves. At some point the influence of the waves (even storm waves) on the material comprising the beach stops, and if the particles are small enough (sand size or smaller), winds shape the feature. Where wind is the force distributing the grains inland, the deposit behind the beach becomes a dune.
Beach materials come from erosion of rocks offshore, as well as from headland erosion and slumping producing deposits of scree (also known as talus, which is the accumulation of broken rock fragments at the base of mountains). Some of the whitest sand in the world is along Florida’s Emerald Coast, which is near Pensacola, Florida. The white sand comes from the erosion of quartz in the Appalachian Mountains. A coral reef offshore is a significant source of sand particles.
Florida’s Beaches:
| A Anne’s Beach, Lower Matecumbe, FL B C D E F G |
H Hallandale Beach, Florida Henderson Beach State Park Highland Beach, Florida Hillsboro Beach, Florida Hollywood, Florida Honeymoon Island State Park Horseshoe Beach, Florida Hugh Taylor Birch State Park Hutchinson Island (Florida) Hutchinson Island South, FL I J K L M N |
O P R S T V W Z |
Florida’s Beach Cities:
| Atlantic Beach Beverly Beach Boca Raton Boynton Beach Butler Beach Cocoa Beach Crescent Beach Daytona Beach Daytona Beach Shores Deerfield Beach Delray Beach Fernandina Beach Flagler Beach Grayton Beach, Florida Gulf Stream Hallandale Highland Beach |
Hobe Sound Hollywood Indialantic Indian Harbour Beach Indian River Shores Jacksonville Beach Juno Beach Jupiter Key Biscayne Key Largo Key West Lake Worth Marathon, Florida Melbourne Beach Miami Beach, Florida Neptune Beach North Palm Beach |
Orchid Palm Beach Palm Beach Shores Palm Coast Panama City Beach Pensacola Beach Pompano Beach Ponce Inlet Ponte Vedra Beach Riviera Beach Satellite Beach South Beach, Miami St. Augustine Beach Stuart, Florida Sunny Isles Beach Vilano Beach Wabasso Beach |