R

Rand coast, coast of the Rand type – characterized by wide (from 1 to several kilometers) recently dried areas. In the lower part closer to the sea, the surface was densely covered by salt-loving plants (halophytes). With the dropping of the groundwater table, the vegetation cover dried, and with proximity to the sea, the new halophytes appeared (i.e. its border with the lowering of the sea water level moves towards the sea). The middle and upper parts of dried areas had no vegetation. Here, the sandy-aleurolite sediments were intensively affected by deflation and as a result chains of barkhans appeared on the dried area with heights varying from 1 to 3 m, and seldom over 5 m. The underwater shoreface of R.C. usually had insignificant slopes, and beaches were not formed here because waves not reaching the coast are attenuated in the shallow zone. R.C. was intensively developed in the southwest (Adjibai Bay), south (Tigrovy Khvost bar), southeast (between theAkala Cape and the AkpetkinskyArchipelago), and north of A.S. (the northern parts of the Kokaral Island).