Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
Large sand volume barrier islands · By Dirk Frankenberg
Seaward slope of a dune
Figure 13. Dunes sloping toward the sea on Bogue Banks. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)
Figure 13 shows the seaward slope of large dunes near the beach in Fort Macon State Park. These dunes are more than 50 feet high and form a relatively continuous barrier that protects areas behind them from salt spray. The seaward dune face shown here is rather sparsely vegetated and, as a result, storm winds sometimes blow the sand out from under them in a process called, unsurprisingly, dune blowout. Several of the bare sand areas seen near the dune crests in the background are the result of such blowouts. The relatively complete vegetation cover, as well as the shrubs and trees at the foot of the dune, survives here because it is in the lee of the dune from which the photograph was taken. Similar areas unprotected by a seaside dune have a much lower percentage of plant coverage than that shown here.
