These pictures were taken yesterday on the beach at Weymouth in Dorset, UK. Very different from the sand patterns on Rhossili Beach shown previously. Some natural sand ripple designs that I’ve never seen/noticed before!
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Jessica's Nature Blog 
Must be a fair amount of current in that area!
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Maybe. I don’t know about that. The strange thing is that for the last couple of days the weather has been very calm and the whole area has been what you would call a ‘low energy environment’ – compared with the ‘high energy environment’ that was responsible for the low relief sand patterns at Rhossili that I showed yesterday.
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I guess that these structures cause waves in the current which in turn influence the ripples. Would be interesting to watch how they are forming. Very fascinating.
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I was thinking about this and remembered that the sand at Weymouth has special properties that make it ideal for creating sand sculptures and sand castles. Something about the high calcium content that gives the sand adhesive properties? If I have recalled this correctly then the chemical as well as the physical properties of the sand may be playing a part in the beautiful sand ripple pattern production – together of course with the way the sea hits the beach from different directions at the same time in such a wide shallow bay.
It would indeed be interesting to be underwater to watch ripple formation. I have in fact stood at the water’s edge on Rhossili beach and watched the action of the water on the sediments and its affect on them. You can see how the to-and-fro movements of the tide push and pull the sand particles and make ridges and furrows. However, in this kind of calm shallow water environment, the process is small-scale and it is difficult to photograph or film.
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