Yesterday the question of groynes, groins, and jetées came up in comments. I've always known them as jetties.
I think that's why I'm fascinated by rocks and stones — there were none where I spent for the first 18 years of my life (except for those jetties). The jetties or groins in the photos here are some that I saw on the Île d'Oléron. I'm fascinated by the blue color of the rocks that were used to build them. According to Wikipedia, the British spelling "groyne" has been Americanized as "groin" nowadays. Dictionary.com, however, says that a groin or groyne is a small jetty. Meanwhile, I've just learned that une jetée in French is not what we call a jetty in North Carolina.
What we call a jetty or others call a groin or groyne is called un épi in French. Un épi is otherwise what we call an "ear" of corn or some other grain. This is all very technical, and reading about it after spending a couple of hours processing photos explains why I am posting later than usual this morning.
Anyway, I like the bluish color of the rocks that went into laying down the jetties, groins, or épis along the beaches of the Île d'Oléron that are exposed to wave action and prevailing ocean currents, protecting the beaches from erosion. Our gîte there was just a short walk from this beach, and we went there with the dog nearly every day.
Anyway, I like the bluish color of the rocks that went into laying down the jetties, groins, or épis along the beaches of the Île d'Oléron that are exposed to wave action and prevailing ocean currents, protecting the beaches from erosion. Our gîte there was just a short walk from this beach, and we went there with the dog nearly every day.
I found this in an article in the Morehead City newspaper:
ReplyDelete"Terminal groins, permanent structures built at the ends of inlets to prevent beach erosion, are currently banned in the state. The legislature directed the CRC to conduct a feasibility study through HB 709 to investigate whether or not they could be used as beach erosion control devices." There are no groins or jetties along about 20 miles of beach on the barrier island across the sound from Morehead. There's a photo of the "jetty" at Beaufort Inlet here.
I love how you went from groynes to groins to jetties to ears of corn. Language is fascinating. In Brighton Beach and Coney Island, the seashore is divided into "bays" defined by these stone groins. I wonder what the shore would look like had these erosion barriers not been placed ages ago. We have only two jetties here on our long beach and a city crew regularly moving sand and rebuilding the shoreline.
ReplyDeleteThe rock groin or jetty does resemble an ear of corn sticking out into the ocean, I guess. Does the water along the beaches on Long Island have a lot of seaweed growing in it like on the Île d'Oléron?
DeleteLocal New Yorkers would automatically separate Long Island (the regional jurisdiction that is only Nassau and Suffolk Counties) from Long Island (the actual geographic island that includes Brooklyn and Queens). As a matter of fact, I'd bet most wouldn't even appreciate that Brooklyn and Queens are actually on an island called "Long." Very different all along the shoreline, too, although I don't remember much seaweed in Nassau and Suffolk County before we moved to Brooklyn nor in Brooklyn and Queens in later years.
DeleteGrowing up on the coast in northern England, a jetty was a small structure that one could walk out on, over the sea. A bit like a mini pier. Different from groynes, which I'd think of as usually wooden structures placed perpendicular to the sea, to stabilise the sand. Isn't language great?!
ReplyDeleteIt is. Thanks, Helen. I've seen wooden groynes in France, but not in the U.S. that I can remember.
DeleteIn a parking lot, if places are at an angle and not perpendicular to the roadway, they're called en épi because they imitate how the seeds are placed in an ear of wheat, at an angle from the stem.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the French CNRTL, épis can be built perpendicular to the shore or at an angle.
DeleteThose parking spaces en épi ared what we call diagonal parking.
DeleteBTW, these photos are great!
ReplyDeleteThanks, CHM.
DeleteI can't say I've ever thought much about groynes (a groin is quite a different matter in the UK!), though I've always supposed them to be about preventing or limiting the movement of sand or pebbles on the beach. In my experience they're usually made out of hefty timbers, and for most of us holidaymakers their primary purpose was to serve as windbreaks.
ReplyDeleteOur N.C. jetties were not windbreaks, but breakwaters. Our climate was very mild, and downright hot during the summer months.
DeleteLove these shoreline pictures!
ReplyDeleteKen as you say, I've heard them called jetties in the south, but yes, as Helen says, jetties can also mean small piers. And picture #3 where you capture the wave kicking up as it comes to shore is quite good. Anyway, fun to have a blog post discussing groins.
ReplyDeleteLOL, D.
DeleteDitto, Ken. The other day, when I looked for a word in English to express those kind of "breakers", the first on the list was groyns, with a Y, which meant it probably was the right word, and nothing else! Words and languages are amazing.
DeleteWhat you're calling groins or jetties, I know as "breakwaters".
ReplyDeleteThe color of those boulders makes me think of all the speculation about the bluestones of Stonehenge, and other henges. Weren't those supposedly brought inland from closer to the British coast, or in Wales. Perhaps these blue stones were similarly moved. Easy enough to do, by water.