THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPACT OF HARMONIC REFORMED MICHE WAVELETS UPON ANATURAL BEACH

The development of multiple or harmonic reformed waves following sea w aves passing over or breaking on reef structures and in laboratory wav e flumes containing artificial reefs or plates hes long been noticed. However, this phenomenon appears to have been accepted as a comparativ ely minor oddity of only secondary concern. Yet on some natural sedime nt-rich beaches, these same wave harmonics occur, and they nearly comp letely dominate the behaviour of the shoreface and the visible beach. The Gold Coast of Queensland Australia is one of these beaches, and we report herein of an initial study into the development, impact and in cidence of broken wave harmonics on this beach system.