Could this be a sea serpent slithering back into the sea? I witnessed this most extraordinary phenomenon when walking along Whiteford Sands in Gower early one evening in August.
The sun was low in the sky as the sea crept slowly up a large sand bank at the western end of the beach. The surface of the water and the smooth wet sand glistened. The incoming tide was edged with a lacey border of creamy sea foam. Snake-like shapes about 7 metres long seemed to be heading for the water.
Approaching closer, these serpents could be identified as the strangest natural sand ripple patterns I have ever seen. By what quirks of tide and current they had been formed is a mystery. In the picture above, one of these ‘creatures’ seems to be advancing unseen behind someone standing on the water’s edge.
With the naked eye, these giant ripple patterns are barely noticeable most of the time. However, when viewed through the camera lens, they amazingly achieve greater dimensionality and life. The ripples are very low lying and are characterised by a smooth textured western side and a rough textured eastern side. The trick of the light from the setting sun accentuates their shape and apparent height.
A further characteristic of these sinuous sand ripples is their unusual orientation which is basically north to south along their length and at right angles to the incoming tide. I have previously thought that ripple patterns were exclusively created parallel to the waves.
Revision of a post first published 22 August 2009
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Jessica's Nature Blog 
Very strange Jessica. The one in the second photo even appears to have a head.
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Amazing structures, and great photography! In all my beach walking I have never seen anything like this either!
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It is all very odd, Amy-Lynn. This sort of natural phenomenon makes it easier to understand the alleged sightings of creatures like the Loch Ness Monster. Have you heard about this animal? It is supposed to look like an ancient Plesiosaur.
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Hi, Jan. Strange sand patterns – both sculpturings and coloured designs – seem to be a phenomenon in that area. I am very keen to understand the processes by which they are created.
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Incredible. What forces are making the sand shift in this way? Recently earthquakes are claimed to be caused by solar winds….
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They are amazing sand ripples, aren’t they? I don’t know the reason why they have formed this way but I doubt it had anything to do with solar winds. Maybe some influence of the moon together with climate and weather changes? The location where they appeared is a rather odd accumulating sand bank. The sands are very mobile around Rhossili Bay and the Loughor estuary. In some areas, (Rhossili, Whiteford Sands and over the water on the Pembrey side) the sand dune systems are being very actively eroded by the sea and the released sediment is carried with the tides and currents into new places like this. The growing sand bank here affects the inflow and outflow of tidal water. The strange ripple patterns possibly result from the complex way the sea flows over and around the sand mound.
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Extraordinarily beautiful, as well as interesting and slightly mysterious
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Thank you, Judith. These were a very unusual find for me. They were formed on a developing bank of sand in a river estuary where water encroached from several directions simultaneously.
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