On the Dynamics of “Almost Equilibrium” Beaches in Semi-sheltered Bays Along the Southern Coast of the Gulf of Finland - The Baltic Sea Basin - page 256

13.1 Beaches Along the North Estonian Coast
The complexity of the dynamics of the Baltic Sea (Fig. 13.1 ) extends far beyond
the typical features of water bodies of comparable size. Pronounced salinity
gradients and rich mesoscale dynamics distinguish this basin from large lakes and
create a similarity of its basic processes with those occurring in the open ocean
(Alenius et al. 1998 ) . The regular presence of sea ice plays a considerable role in
its functioning (Kawamura et al. 2001 , Granskog et al. 2004 ) . Marine meteorologi-
cal conditions reveal remarkable anisotropy and non-homogeneous patterns of wind
and wave fields (Myrberg 1997 , Soomere and Keevallik 2003 , Soomere 2003 ) .
The most interesting basin in this respect is the Gulf of Finland (Fig. 13.2 ,
Soomere et al. 2008c ) . Its hydrodynamical fields reveal highly interesting patterns
of currents (Andrejev et al. 2004 ) and its small size is the basis of its high suscep-
tibility with respect to (changes of) the external forcing factors. Dominant winds
blow obliquely with respect to the axis of the gulf, giving rise to wave systems with
a specific orientation (Kahma and Pettersson 1994 , Pettersson et al. 2010 ) that fre-
quently differs from the wind direction. A short “memory” of wave fields (Soomere
2005 ) combined with highly intermittent local wave regime (Soomere 2008 ) makes
it frequently possible to identify the impact of single storm or wind event in the
coastal landscape. While large parts of the Baltic Sea coasts express relatively sim-
ple geomorphic and lithodynamic features (e.g. the almost straight eastern coast
Fig. 13.1 Location and bathymetry of the Baltic Sea. From Seifert et al. ( 2001 ) by kind permission
of T. Seifert