Talk:Tetrapod (structure)

Sources - Plausibility?
''removed " through satellite photographs". sources? plausibility? beyond even the military. reality - breakwaters are monitored by guys in boats''

I've been to Crescent City, CA, where they have a dolos displayed with an explanatory plaque saying the numbers on the tetrapods / doloses are intended to monitor movement through SATELLITES (i also walked on the breakwater and can affirm that some of the doloses / tetrapods are in fact numbered).

If you have any information that this is incorrect please present it. I think it should be obvious that small movements in breakwater elements cannot be observed "from a boat". I could be wrong of course...so make your case.

If you can't I'm reverting the edit. Lexington50 (talk) 07:09, 27 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Reverted edit - the person responsible for this claim didn't respond to my challenge either here or on his personal page Lexington50 (talk) 06:37, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

This reads like a commercial. Some argue that tetrapods accelerate beach erosion by disrupting the natural processes that shape the coastal environment. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.52.92.55 (talk) 11:21, 13 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Indeed there are many who do take that line. The arguments pro and con have aroused more general interest since the Hurricane Sandy flooding. In countries where land is at a premium though, for example the Netherlands and Belgium, allowing nature to take its course is not an option. This, however, is a consideration not limited to tetrapods and belongs more properly to an article on coastal erosion and defences. Everybody got to be somewhere! (talk) 00:00, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

similar structures
Caltrop links here (and includes the same pic of Mumbai); link back? —Tamfang (talk) 07:57, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Words in Japan
I removed this claim:

"In Japan, the word tetrapod is often used as a generic name for wave-dissipating blocks including other types and shapes."

The word "tetrapod" as such can only appear in fringe publications, not in Japanese. The refs are the Japan Times: I can't read the article, but I expect the author is confused about what "tetrapod" means. The second ref does not include the prefix 'tetra'. Even if marginally true, this is just mubblefluff. (If WP were serious about including every plausible claim of an English word being used in Japan with a different meaning, the Foundation would have to start a huge investment in extra servers.) Imaginatorium (talk) 09:01, 19 May 2023 (UTC) Imaginatorium (talk) 09:01, 19 May 2023 (UTC)