Bottom samples were collected bimonthly for nine years at nineteen closely spaced stations in shallow water on the continental shelf off northern San Diego County, California. Sediments were mechanically analyzed and the statistical parameters were encoded and processed by computer to produce a history at each station from 1964 to the present. Wave statistics developed for this site show that sufficient energy to cause significant sediment reworking is supplied by waves impinging on this coastline. By grouping sediment parameters according to statistical wave seasons, close correlation between sediment distribution and wave energy is noted. This seasonal approach also reveals the seaward limit of beach migration as part of the annual beach cycle and the nature and extent of reworked and undisturbed relict shelf sediments.
