Sand indicated by orange dotted areas, is carried down the San Lorenzo River and thence moved down-coast by wave and tidal action called littoral drift. Constantly moving, the sand mass builds up against the west jetty and flows around it, shoaling the Santa Cruz Harbor entrance channel.  Impeding sand is then dredged from the entrance channel and deposited in the inter-tidal zone where the existing littoral drift carries it eastward again, nourishing those beaches down-coast from the Santa Cruz Harbor entrance.

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