Resources: Sea Turtle Glossary

accretionary-terrain - a parcel of new land added on to preexisting land by sedimentation

air-dammed stope - a dome-like air chamber formed by emerging hatchling sea turtles mining their way to the surface by bumping the ceiling of a stope with their heads

arribadas - An aggregation of female sea turtles exiting the ocean together to nest at the same time and the same place.

backbeach - The area lying between the high tide line and the storm high tide line [Often called the back part of the beach].

beach - The area of sand between the sea and the land exposed between high and low tides.

beach, active - The upper layers of recently deposited beach sediment characterized by discrete sedimentary structures consisting of laminated sands and open and filled burrows, and often with one or more discrete heavy mineral layers marking the bottom of the active sorting zone.

beach, inactive - The lower layers of oxidized (light brown) beach sediment which were deposited in past times characterized by diffuse sedimentary structures consisting of ghosty laminated textures, filled and open burrows, and often topped by a horizon separating rooted sediment below from the active beach sediment above.

bluff - a high erosional cliff, larger than a scarp, formed by erosion of a high standing dune or island core.

body pit - the wallowed-out depression made by a sea turtle to reach damp sand that will hold vertical walls of the egg chamber.

boneyard - (coastal colloquialism) The skeletal remains of dead trees left behind as erosion inundates a beach.

clutch - The mass of eggs deposited by a single nesting event of a sea turtle; averaging approximately 113 eggs.

covering pit - Elliptical area of disturbed surficial sand disrupted and stirred up by female sea turtle after nesting to disguise the position of body pit and egg chamber.

crawlway - Linear markings on the beach made by a sea turtle as it crawls across the beach attempting to nest; comprised of a medial plastron drag flanked on either side by flipper marks.

egg chamber - Bulb-shaped pit dug by sea turtle into damp sand beneath body pit into which eggs are deposited during nesting.

emergence crater - A steep-walled depression formed when sea turtle hatchlings emerge onto the surface of the beach, causing the surface sand to collapse into the egg chamber neck.

endangered species (Federal) - any species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

entrance crawlway - The plastron drag and flipper marks made by a nesting sea turtle crawling from the sea to the backbeach to nest.

ethogram - A detailed list or catalogue of the stereotyped discrete behaviors typically employed in the activities of a given species.

exit crawlway - The plastron drag and flipper marks made by a nesting sea turtle crawling from the nest back to the sea.

extinct - The disappearance of a species from the world.

facies - The aspects, appearance, and characteristics of a sedimentary layer or rock unit, reflecting the conditions of its origin and used to differentiate it from adjacent or associated units formed at the same time.

geomorphology - " The branch of geology that examines the formation and structure of the features of the surface of the Earth or of another planet." (MSN Encarta)

Guale Island - an ancient northern part of St. Catherines Island that formed a separate island north and east of modern St. Catherines Island during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene.

heavy mineral(s) - sand sized sediment comprised of high density mineral grains sorted and concentrated by wave activity consisting of minerals such as rutile, ilmenite, apatite, hornblende, garnet, and leucoxene.

ichnology - "The branch of paleontology dealing with the study of fossilized footprints, tracks, burrows, or other traces as evidence of the activities of the organisms that produced them." (Answers.com).

monitoring - To observe, supervise, or keep under review; to measure or test at intervals, especially for the purpose of regulation or control, or to check or regulate the technical quality of something.

neap tide - Exceptionally low tidal ranges which coincide with half moons, the high tide is lower than "normal" and the low tide is higher than "normal."

nest - The area of beach disturbed by behavioral activities involved in the activities involved in depositing eggs; including entrance and exit crawlways, body pit, egg chamber, and covering pit.

nor'easter - A cyclonic storm of the east coast of North America, with winds in the coastal area from the northeast, occuring at any time of year, but developing most frequently and most violently between September and April, usually in lower-middle latitudes (30°-40°N) within 100 miles east or west of the coastline, and usually bringing precipitation gale force, winds, rough seas, and coastal flooding.

relict mud - Ancient mud layers which are being exposed by modern erosion on the beach; Often deposited in the past in seaside marshes and/or interdune swales when the beach was positioned further to the seaward side of the island.

sand - sediment which is coarser than 1/16 mm and finer than 2 mm in size, a sediment size range normally visible to the naked eye.

scarp - A small escarpment or cliff-like face formed by erosion of high standing areas on the back beach.

spring tide - Exceptionally high tidal ranges which coincides with Full and New moons, high tides are higher than "normal" and low tides are lower than "normal."

stoping - The process of mining an ore body from the bottom upward; in the case of sea turtles, the excavation of emerging turtles as they bump the top of an air-chamber (formed by volume decrease of the clutch upon hatching) with their heads, causing the sand from the stope roof to filter downward through the mass of turtles and being trampled into the stope floor beneath them, causing the mass of turtles to rise relative to the beach sand until they emerge.

storm high tide line - The high tide line, usually marked by the highest wrack, of the reach of the highest waves during a storm.

swale - An elongated depression or trough in the land surface, often between dune ridges, that is often seasonally wet, heavily vegetated, and normally without flowing water.

threatened species - any species likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Through regulations, the U.S. Department of the Interior extends most of the federal endangered species protection to federal threatened species.

washover fan - a deposit of sand sized particles washed off the beach and accumulated as a thin, tongue-like layer on top of the marsh.

wild nest - a nest which emerges on the beach that was unknown to the conservationists.

wrack - Organic algae, plant, or animal matter and/or inorganic flotsam that accumulates on beaches, usually at the high tide mark.