Abstract
The western Northern Territory coast includes both its western shore and northern Arnhem Land coast, in all 1354 km of coast. This is a lee coast with the prevailing southeast trades blowing predominately offshore. Waves are low to at best moderate, and tides meso to mega all set in a tropical monsoonal climate exposed to seasonal tropical cyclones. Several moderate-sized rivers flow to the coast delivering bed load; however half the coastal sediment is carbonate in origin derived from the shoreface. The generally low waves and high tides maintain predominately tide-dominated beaches with wide tidal flats, backed by low regressive beach-foredune ridge barrier and some cheniers with mangroves dominating the low energy shores, estuaries and river mouths. Dune transgression is restricted to a few more exposed east-facing shores. The chapter describes the processes, beaches, barriers and sediment transport of the western and northern Territory coast, all set within a framework of sediment compartments.
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Short, A.D. (2020). Western Northern Territory Region. In: Australian Coastal Systems. Coastal Research Library, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14294-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14294-0_7
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