mach-stem effect

a condition where some or all of the incident wave energy is trapped and flows along a wall. For solitary waves approaching a vertical wall with incident angle ai $ 45o (angle between direction of wave approach and the normal to the wall) a portion of the wave energy becomes trapped and flows along the wall. For ai $ 70o all of the incident energy is trapped and flows along the wall, with increasing water height down wave. Syn: Mach-stem reflection/trapping.

marginal sea coasts

coasts that develop along the shores of seas enclosed by continents and island arcs. Typically they are hilly, have wide shelves, limited wave fetch, and large deltas.

Markov process

a process in which the state of a system at time t(n) depends in part on the state of the system at time t(n-1). AThe very nature of their development gives coastlines a Markovian property - that is, their present features are dependent upon the land forms that preceded them as well as the process that formed them@ (Inman & Nordstrom, 1971).

mean high water (MHW)

arithmetic mean of all high water heights observed over a 19.7 year interval (National Tidal Datum Epoch).

mean sea level (MSL)

arithmetic mean of hourly heights observed over a 19.7 year interval (National Tidal Datum Epoch).