A ridge of sand running away from the coast, usually with a curved seaward end. Breaking waves produce a turbulent flow of water that dislodges sediment from the beachface, and create the longshore currents that transport the sand along the beachface. ‘Without breaking waves, the littoral current and the drift of sand ceases’ (Oertel and Overman (2004) Geomorph. 58, 1–4). Since the water beyond the end of the spit is usually deep, waves do not break, but are refracted and diffracted around the spit, curving it. Clemmensen et al. (2001) Holocene 11, 3 find that spit growth is closely linked to sea-level variation.

Ciavola (1997) Catena 30 concludes that ‘the strategy of coastal management that seems more appropriate to the spit-tidal flat sedimentary system is a “do-nothing option”. The sea has to be left free to overwash the spit, supplying sand to the tidal flat. The spit will start again to migrate uniformly westwards, even if this means that for some time it will be transformed into an island.’ Marghany (2012) Acta Geophysica DOI: 10.2478/s11600-012-0061-5 presents a new approach to 3-D spit simulation using differential synthetic aperture interferometry (DInSAR).