Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations

Hurricanes on sandy shorelines · By Dirk Frankenberg

Overwash fan on Topsail Island

New River Inlet Outwash Fan (Hurricane Fran Overwash behind New River Inlet)

Figure 6. An overwash fan from Hurricane Fran behind the New River Inlet. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)

Figure 6 shows you another overwash fan created during a hurricane. This one is at the north end of Topsail Island, and formed when the storm surge and waves of Hurricane Fran washed through New River Inlet. This overwash fan is a flat terrace of sand that extends over dozens of acres of what was once salt marsh.

This photograph was taken several years after the overwash fan was formed, and the marsh has not regenerated. As was the case shown in Figure 5, this overwash fan simply makes the island closer to the mainland than it was before the hurricane. It is unlikely that any natural process will bring much of this sand back to the front of the island where it came from.

Definitions

overwash fan n.
A break in a continuous dune line or line of vegetation where storm tides carried sand from oceanside, to estuaries, great ponds, and bayside; often clears a vegetation-free path from ocean to inner water body.
hurricane n.
A severe tropical cyclone originating in the equatorial regions of the Atlantic Ocean or Caribbean Sea or eastern regions of the Pacific Ocean, traveling north, northwest, or northeast from its point of origin, and usually involving heavy rains and has surface wind speeds greater than 74 miles (or 119 kilometers) per hour. [more]
storm surge n.
Water that is pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds swirling around a storm. [more]
inlet n.
A recess, such as a bay or cove, along a coast; a stream or bay leading inland, as from the ocean; an estuary; a narrow passage of water, as between two islands; a drainage passage.
salt marsh n.
A low coastal grassland frequently overflowed by the tide.
regenerate v.
To become formed or constructed again; return to life; get or give new life or energy.