DAHUAJIAO BOULDER BEACH, WANNING HAINAN, CHINA

Boulder beaches are different from gravel beaches in terms of sediments and morphodyanmics, as a kind of special scenery, which attracts tourists. In this paper, we select a case from Dahuajiao, Wanning city of the Hainan Island to report its occurrence and characteristics. The boulder beach is composed of rounded boulders in size of 0.5~1.0 m. Storm waves were the force to move the boulders trimly along the base of the beach. The beach profile is rather smooth, which is 40 m in width and 9 m in height from the low water level to the top of the beach. The slope of the beach is around 13°.The beach was formed by high energy waves, based on specific geological background and geomorphologic factors. It is important to highlight the unique boulder beaches that sometimes were regarded as pebble and cobble beaches. As a tourist resource, the special boulder beach is more attractive than common gravel beaches.