January 5, 2022 By jennifer
It’s been an exciting start to the year where I live, as the highest astronomical tide is forecast for January 3 and there’s a tornado watching us.
At annual high tide, I wonder if the waves will reach the wave cut at the bottom of the cliffs, below the Boiling Pot Lookout in Noosa National Park, almost halfway across Australia’s east coast, right near where I don’t. direct.
I’ve been walking around and standing there on the lower platform (Background 1) for a number of years at high tide. These tides are in summer in the Southern Hemisphere because that’s when the Sun is closest to Earth, and they usually correspond to a New or Full Moon.
This year, on the forecasted date of the highest astronomical tide (Monday 3rd January 2022), Noosa was featured on the front page of the national paper – the story of giant bulges: as high as 4 meters from Cyclone Seth just offshore.
Will I be washed off the breakwater at the bottom of the cliff this year at highest tide?
The sea begins at the edge of the land. Where sea level starts is sea level – and people fear that sea level is rising.
But this foundation must be a relic from a time when sea levels were higher because even this year with the low pressure system offshore raised sea levels, and with La Nina raising sea levels even higher. Furthermore, the sea level has not yet reached the breakwater.
These platforms just form below sea level, in the intertidal zone, where the shearing action of waves will bring down large rocks from above. Debris removed by washing, beyond the intertidal zone; the cape recedes towards the mainland; the sea eats into the cliff face; and thus cliffs are formed, with wave-cutting platforms at their base.
This platform is below the Boiling Point Lookout, which I’ve stood on over the years: it’s huge.
When was it formed? Sea level at that height – how long does it take to erode a cliff face that width?
This year the waves, at their biggest, at high tide, they hit the cliff face!
Not sea level, but rising water.
And I still haven’t been swept away. Because I was not on the platform!
But my friend Jared was there, and he wasn’t swept away. You can see him in the drone footage I shot – lots of it needs editing – showing the biggest bulges including when they hit the cliff the day before (2 months) 1) with Hurricane Seth just offshore and the next day (3 January) being the highest tide of the year.
I’m flying my drone (awesome Skido) from a ledge outside the platform catching the wind and out to sea so I can get a striking image looking back at the cliff face at tide time highest astronomical, as shown in the image feature at the top of this blog post.
This year, I didn’t dare venture beneath the cliff face at high tide, but Jared did – and he wasn’t swept away. You’ll see him in this short film I hope to make about cliff faces and climate change. Be sure to know when it’s uploaded to the internet or ready to show at the amazing local Pomona Theater subscribe to my monthly e-newsletter.
Related
