Offshore bars could protect beaches from erosion by reducing turbulent flow.
A study compared waves on a flat beach and a beach with a sandbar. The sandbar changed how waves broke, making the water flow less turbulent and reducing the strength of the undertow. This suggests that building underwater barriers near the shore could help lessen beach erosion caused by waves. More research is needed to understand how different factors like water depth and barrier size affect wave turbulence in order to design effective solutions.