Subaerial weathering versus wave processes in shore platform development: Reappraising the Old Hat Island evidence

Abstract

One of the longest standing debates in rocky coast geomorphology is whether subaerial weathering or wave processes dominate shore platform evolution. The origins of this debate date to the mid-nineteenth century when the first descriptions of Old Hat Islands were provided from northern New Zealand. Old Hat Islands are surrounded by a broad near-horizontal shore platform. Their formation was inferred to relate to subaerial weathering of bedrock to a level of permanent saturation with wave processes acting only to remove the weathered debris. To date, no detailed topographic surveys have been conducted on the Old Hat Islands in New Zealand that initiated this debate; in this study we provide t..