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Self-stabilised fractality of sea-coasts through damped erosion

B. Sapoval, A. Baldassarri, A. Gabrielli

cond-mat.stat-mecharXiv:cond-mat/0311509

Abstract

Erosion of rocky coasts spontaneously creates irregular seashores. But the geometrical irregularity, in turn, damps the sea-waves, decreasing the average wave amplitude. There may then exist a mutual self-stabilisation of the waves amplitude together with the irregular morphology of the coast. A simple model of such stabilisation is studied. It leads, through a complex dynamics of the earth-sea interface, to the appearance of a stationary fractal seacoast with dimension close to 4/3. Fractal geometry plays here the role of a morphological attractor directly related to percolation geometry.

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