Erosion patterns in a sediment layer

Abstract

We report here on a laboratory-scale experiment which reproduces a rich variety of natural patterns with few control parameters. In particular, we focus on intriguing rhomboid structures often found on sandy shores and flats. We show that the standard views based on water surface waves come short to explain the phenomenon and we evidence a new mechanism based on a mud avalanche instability.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear as Phys. Rev. E rapid com