Comparison between predicted and observed physical features of sandbanks

A linear stability analysis has been carried out to investigate the influence of parameters like tidal current, depth and Coriolis force on sand bank formation. The applied analytical model allowed the computation of the horizontal wave number corresponding to the fastest initial growth rate of seabed form perturbations. Sandbank wavelength and the angle between the crest of the sandbank and tidal current direction were also obtained. The experiments show an exponential decay of this angle for increasing values of tidal currents. At a particular depth, the sand bank wavelength grows almost linearly with the velocity. We compared these theoretical results with observations of sandbank features in several geographic areas (Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Korea, Gulf of California and the North Sea). The results show that all observed sand bank wavelengths and angles are in very close agreement with the calculated theoretical curves. (C) 2001 Academic Press.