Long term shore platform surface lowering rates: Revisiting Gill and Lang after 32 years

Abstract

In 1978 E.D. Gill and J.G. Lang installed 53 micro-erosion meter (MEM) sites on shore platforms along the Otway coast in south eastern Australia. Surface lowering rates were originally determined from 2yr of measurements (1979 and 1980) and showed that the mean annual rate of lowering from all sites was 0.37mm/yr -1. We re-measured these MEM sites 32yr after the first set of readings were taken in February 1979. We relocated 49 of the original 53 bolt sites and were able to measure 45 of them. From the sites we measured, the mean annual rate of shore platform lowering was 0.31mm/yr -1. Rates of surface lowering on shore platforms are commonly reported from studies of only two or three years ..