Main patterns of coastal zone development of the Curonian Spit, Lithuania

The Curonian Spit is the largest sandy barrier on the Baltic Sea coast. The accumulation of the sand was caused mainly by alongshore sediment drift affecting a shore zone more than 600 km long from the Sambian Peninsula in the south to the mouth of the Gulf of Riga in the north. Although alongshore sediment drift presents a well expressed South North resultant, some parts of the south-eastern Baltic shore are developed rather differently due to changing natural and anthropogenic conditions. The paper analyses the peculiarities of the relief and sediment composition of the Lithuanian part of the Curonian Spit coastal area embracing the underwater sand bars, beaches, and fore-dunes. Trends in morphology changes and distribution of sediments in three dynamically different shore segments relatively stable, transitional and accumulative-are discussed.