Wave action on a beach & metal detectors

snowstreams

Hi, This might be a better place to ask this question.
My fiance lost her engagement ring on Sunday on a beach.
It was 1 hour before low tide when she lost it, right at the waters edge.
The beach has quite large waves on it, since it is on the atlantic. Roughly how far down could a gold ring go after 6 tides have passed?
We are going to try and find it with a metal detector. But need to know how deep it could have gone.
It seems most detectors cant detect gold as well cause its not a great conductor. But its white gold, which has nickel in it, so could be better?
I reckon 25cm with a good detector is possible.
Would the wet salt in the sand, hinder or help detection?

bogwalrus

id say people in archaelogy forum might know about the detectors. good luck with it though!

snowstreams

Cheers, I'll give them a shout so.
I just hope the waves dont bury it too deep so it cant be detected.

ApeXaviour

Pretty sure the salty water shouldn't impede detection, though may be wrong.

I can't imagine it burying itself too deep, certainly not too deep to be detected. If you think about it the tides and waves are going to be constantly shifting the top layer of the sand, as opposed to adding new layers (in a short time scale at least). The ring being dense it'll quickly move to the bottom of this shifting layer... but once it's in compacted unmoving sand I imagine it should remain fairly still.

snowstreams

Thanks. I was thinking that top layer would nearly act like a thick liquid. I just hope that top layer isnt too deep. Maybe 10cm deep from the action of 6ft waves. I couldnt imagine the waves being any bigger than that at the moment.
As long as there arent any major storms the ring shouldnt move location much too.

FISMA

Gold is actually a very good conductor. Also, it is over a million times more conductive than saltwater. I'll have to check, to be exact, however, it is a large number.

If I were you I would: (1) remove the name of the beach, (2) put up lost and found signs, and (3) get out and get searching.

Definitely, search a football pitch area.

Don't worry about depth. Most metal detectors will reach down to a point where the ring will not bury itself, given the time frame.

Go slow and be methodical from the point of loss. If you want to get CSI on it, bring a stake and some string. Make a circle and unravel as you go.

snowstreams

I like your idea of the string on a stake. The tide was extremely low when she lost it. So we wont be able to find it till the weekend at the earliest. Though we mite try wading in the water with the detector?
Glad gold is a decent conductor. It should show up easily so.

FISMA

SnowStreams,
Give us an update if/when you do your search.

ZorbaTehZ

FISMA is right, gold is an excellent conductor, but I don't think that the resistivity of one metal versus another is of such relative importance - far more considerable would be the size of the object and the quality of the detector. Regardless, if you have an anyway decent device it should be more than ok for doing the job.

snowstreams

I went to the beach earlier today at low tide. But the tide wasnt far enough out. There is a spring tide next thursday. So i plan to get a good search done next saturday.
The sand on the beach is very wet and soft. I just hope the ring hasnt sunk too far into the sand in the mean time. The detector we have detects reliably to about 10cm.
Any deeper than that needs the sensitivity turned to full. Although at full sensitivity the detector goes off at the slightest movement. Possibly from some minerals in the sand?
Im begining to think i may need a larger detector to go deeper.

bluebug1

Any news on the ring snow streams? You could check easytides website for a free prediction on when lowtide is on the beach you are looking to search. Its best to leave it a few hours before lowtide and move up to where you think you lost it as you go. Most entry level detetcors are quite useless in wet sand as the conductivity of the salt water in the sand sends the detector into false signals. This is because they arent able to manually ground balance. Ideally you need a pulse induction metal detector which will give good depth without falsing on the sand you are covering.

Regards

Stephen

amen

I think you have a bigger problem then the ring being burried. I think its most likely the ring will have moved. After all the waves have no problem moving large stones during the winter.

Strong big waves would have a good change to move the ring in both inland and back out. But with the current weather the ring may have been moved further inland.

Also consider the waves may be hitting the coast at an angle so you may need to stand back a bit from the shore and see what way the waves are moving and move sideways from where you think you lost the ring.

You may be covered under house insurance if you cannot find it.