English

Erosion patterns in a sediment layer

Soft Condensed Matter 2007-05-23 v2

Abstract

We report here on a laboratory-scale experiment which reproduces a rich variety of natural patterns with few control parameters. In particular, we focus on intriguing rhomboid structures often found on sandy shores and flats. We show that the standard views based on water surface waves come short to explain the phenomenon and we evidence a new mechanism based on a mud avalanche instability.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0205632,
  title  = {Erosion patterns in a sediment layer},
  author = {A. Daerr and P. Lee and J. Lanuza and E. Clement},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0205632},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

4 pages, 4 figures, to appear as Phys. Rev. E rapid comm