The Impact of Rapid Sea Level Changes on Recent Azerbaijan Beach Ridges

A ground-penetrating radar survey of a newly formed series of beach ridges along the southern Azerbaijan coast, Caspian Sea, illustrates rapid coastal response to the most recent sea level fall of 0.8 m in the Caspian Sea between 1995 and 1999. Effects of seasonal sea level fluctuations as well as individual storm occurrences can be linked to depositional beds on the ground-penetrating radar profiles. The beach ridge system is swash built and formed primarily under fair weather conditions. Ridge and swale topography can be related to seasonal sea level change. The rapid sea level change in the Caspian Sea combined with surface and subsurface data on coastal beach ridges provides a unique opportunity to observe and reconstruct coastal evolution at a resolution not possible along other oceanic coasts.