What is a barrier spit?
Barrier Spits Barrier spits are depositional formations caused by the lateral movement of water along a shoreline known as littoral drift. Wave energy rarely, if ever, makes perfect perpendicular contact with the shoreline. Instead, the waves hit the shoreline at an angle, causing a lateral movement of water and sediment in the direction the wave motion is angled toward. This lateral movement results in the deposition of sediment along the coastline where wave energy goes from high to low. For the most part, spits are thought of as coastal marine formations, but they are also very evident in many large lakes that exist today.
