Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
Small sand volume barrier islands · By Dirk Frankenberg
Overwash fan on Topsail Beach
Figure 8. Overwash from Hurricane Fran. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)
Figure 8 shows an extensive overwash fan located behind the main road to North Topsail Beach. The sand that forms this feature was brought here during Hurricane Fran. It has increased the elevation of this back beach area, but only as a result of the flattening of the upper beach and dunes that once lay seaward of it.
