Much documentary evidence (maps, aerial photographs, special surveys) exists by which the historical retreat of the Caminada-Moreau, Louisiana, beach coastline can be measured. Retreat is constantly producing new beach and related landforms. The two main processes are washover and eolian sand movements. Repeated surveys along fixed lines have identified appreciable differences by which sand encroaches on different types of landward surfaces such as marshes, old distributary channels, lakes, tidal lagoons, and manmade features (pipeline canals). Tidal change, wave action, wind strength and direction, and vegetation are the main factors that produce variations in the sand features, but the forms of the preexisting reception surface are also important. Some estimate of the e fect of severe storms or hurricane activity can also be made by correlating climatic records, aerial photographs, and older landforms. Small-scale surface characteristics are produced by rain wash, and lake- and bayou-margin wave effects.

Several physiographic situations are repeated along the 19-km-long coastline: wide flat washover beaches, concentrated washover splays, microcliffs in old dunes, active dunes, and stabilized dunes. Some of these differences can be related to the presence or absence of an organic silt (old marsh) platform in the intertidal zone, whereas other features seem to be related to systematic longshore changes operating between Caminada Pass and the Fourchon outlet of Bayou Lafourche.

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