Morris Island Lighthouse is now located over 1,500 feet out to sea on a sand shoal surrounded by a small seawall. The relatively deep 35-foot foundation of the spindle has allowed it to continue standing as the land moved out from under it. Originally constructed a quarter-mile behind the beach, the lighthouse has survived storms, rising sea level, and barrier island migration since 1876.

Situated on the Baltic Sea coast of Latvia, Jurmala Beach runs unbroken for over 30km along the Gulf of Riga. The beach is frozen and snow-covered in winter but in summer is a popular bathing area.

Cabanas Velhas, meaning old huts, is a small embayed beach located in the southern Algarve, about 20 km east of Cape St Vincent. Composed of pre-Ordovician shale and greywacke cliffs in the west and Jurassic to Miocene limestone and marlstone cliffs in the south, this rocky shoreline is punctuated by several embayed or pocket beaches.

Artist Mary Edna Fraser lives on an intertidal creek in Charleston, South Carolina. Although having depicted coastal regions around the world, it is this landscape that she knows best. Much of the city of Charleston lies at about eight feet above sea level and when high tide combines with a little rain, flooding is rampant all over the city.

Caminada Headland is a 22.5 km (14 mile) long beach (part of which is called Elmer’s Island) that projects out in to the Gulf of Mexico from the central Mississippi River Delta. This undeveloped beach was once an unbroken stretch of fine sand with extraordinary fishing and bird-watching opportunities. The birds and fish remain, but unfortunately hurricanes have breached the beach in many places.

Jekyll Island is a 12-kilometer long ark meeting the Atlantic Ocean as part of the Georgia coastline, southeastern US. The island is an exquisite exemplar of coastal processes, both geological and human-influenced. By Blair and Dawn Witherington.