Coffee Table Book of: Seashores (Paperback)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Seashores is a large format book of seashores, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: tropical sand and coral lagoons, dunes and beach grass, cliffs, sea stacks and caves, rocky northern shores and tide pools, shingle and black volcanic sand, salt marshes and mangroves, and waves, fog and storm, at many hours and in every season.

Along warm tropical shores, white coral sand curves beside clear turquoise shallows, a fallen coconut rests above the tideline, a low sandy cay sits on a coral flat and a net of sunlight shifts across rippled sand underwater, with pink shell grains, a lone coconut palm by a lagoon, creeping beach morning glory and white surf breaking along an outer reef.

Where waves work against rock stand a tall slender sea stack in the surf, a grey stone arch offshore, the mouth of a sea cave, a spraying blowhole, a white chalk pillar, banded red sandstone and a wave sculpted mushroom rock, with a common guillemot on a cliff ledge.

In the tide pools, pink coralline algae line the rock, a purple ochre sea star clings to dark mussels, red beadlet and bright green anemones open their tentacles under still water, purple sea urchins rest in rounded rock hollows and conical limpets grip among white barnacles.

In sheltered waters, pale lilac sea lavender and bright green glasswort grow on salty mud, a winding channel crosses a saltmarsh, mangrove prop roots arch into calm shallows, a slender mangrove seedling stands in wet mud and wide silver mudflats gleam at low tide.

Short notes run through the book, on how waves, wind and tides shape the shore, how coastal rocks, sands and marshes form, and the plants and animals of the tideline: parrotfish help make white tropical sand by grinding coral reef rock as they feed, marram grass is a pioneer of coastal dunes, and its long roots help bind loose drifting sand, saltmarsh plants slow the tide and trap fine sediment, gradually building the mud higher above the sea, and coastal fog forms when warm, moist air passes over colder seawater and condenses into tiny droplets.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a paperback.