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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 93 » Issue 9
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 098501 (2004) [4 pages]

Self-Stabilized Fractality of Seacoasts through Damped Erosion

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B. Sapoval1,2, A. Baldassarri1,3, and A. Gabrielli4
1Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, CNRS Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, France
2Centre de Mathématiques et de leurs Applications, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 94235 Cachan, France
3INFM, UdR Roma 1, Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma “La Sapienza,” P.le Aldo Moro 2, 00185 Rome, Italy
4”Enrico Fermi” Center, Via Panisperna 89 A, Compendio del Viminale, Palaz. F, 00184 Rome, Italy

Received 21 November 2003; published 23 August 2004

Erosion of rocky coasts spontaneously creates irregular seashores. But the geometrical irregularity, in turn, damps the sea waves, decreasing the average wave amplitude. There may then exist a mutual self-stabilization of the wave amplitude together with the irregular morphology of the coast. A simple model of such stabilization is studied. It leads, through a complex dynamics of the earth-sea interface, to the appearance of a stationary fractal seacoast with a dimension close to 4/3. Fractal geometry here plays the role of a morphological attractor directly related to percolation geometry.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.098501
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.098501
PACS:
92.40.Gc, 64.60.Ak
 
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