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Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks
This Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations “virtual field trip” explores the nature and structure of barrier islands with large sand volume, on which built structures are relatively well insulated from hurricane damage.
Format: slideshow (multiple pages)
Small sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks
This Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations “virtual field trip” explores the nature and structure of barrier islands with small sand volume, on which built structures are highly susceptible to damage from hurricanes.
Format: slideshow (multiple pages)
Small and large sand volume barrier islands
In Small sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 1
Barrier islands are the dominant geographic feature of sandy coastlines, but recurring storm damage on some demonstrates that different barrier islands present very different levels of risk to residential development. One of the best indicators of development...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Bogue Inlet
In Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 10
Figure 9 shows the Bear Island beach near Bogue Inlet. This area appears as a white band in the right middle distance in Figure 8. Note the almost continuous maritime grassland in the foreground and bare sand stretching back into the salt marsh on the shore...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Bear Island dunes (1)
In Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 4
We will begin our trip by visiting Bear Island, the undeveloped island of the pair of large sand volume barrier islands. Figure 3 shows the high volume sand dunes on Bear Island. These dunes are about 50 feet high and cover an area about 5 miles long and one-half...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Sand lobes
In Small sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 6
Figure 4 shows the inland edge of the overwash event first seen in Figure 2. Note the two lobes of sand, one on either side of what is now a peninsula of salt marsh extending seaward from the main marsh area. These sand lobes have covered over and killed the...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Dune erosion on Bear Island
In Hurricanes on sandy shorelines: Lessons for development, page 10
Figure 7 shows that not all of the barrier islands are flattened when hurricanes make landfall over them. This photograph shows the beach and seawardmost dunes of Bear Island after five hurricanes battered them in two years. The remnants of dead maritime thicket...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
How is coastal sand formed into barrier islands?
In Small sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 2
Coastal sand is organized into barrier islands when three conditions are met: There is a supply of sand sufficient to form islands; sea level is rising; and there are winds and waves with sufficient energy to move the sand around....
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Back-barrier salt marsh
In Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 6
Figure 5 shows the back-barrier salt marsh with a dune crest visible on the right and an area of maritime forest in the left background. This will allow you to confirm your estimate of the height of the dunes and the role these high dunes have in protecting...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Undeveloped sand ridge
In Small sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 17
Figure 15 shows an undeveloped sand ridge in the salt marsh behind Topsail Beach. As you can see, these ridges are not much above sea level, but the presence of live oak trees shows that the areas are not flooded frequently. However, there most assuredly are...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Bear Island dunes (2)
In Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 5
Figure 4 shows the crests of dunes on the landward side of Bear Island and the back-barrier salt marsh stretching toward the mainland. By estimating the distance from the dune crests to the salt marsh surface, we can see that the dunes are tall, and once again...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Small and large sand volume islands
In Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 1
This field trip follows another in this series, Small Sand Volume Islands. Readers should plan to take these trips sequentially, to compare the two types of islands. The thesis of both trips is that the volume of sand that comprises...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Dune grasses
In Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 18
There are things people can do to retain or increase sand volume on barrier islands. One of these is to plant dune grasses like those in Figure 17. Not only do such plantings stabilize the sand that already exists by reducing the ability of wind to move it...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Rebuilding dunes
In Small sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 14
Figure 12 shows new dunes built to provide protection from the next storm's overwash. The sand for this construction has been scraped off roads and overwash fans further back on the island. It has been cleaned of debris by passing it through a slatted steel...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Marshes of Masonboro
In Small sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 8
Figure 6 shows that most of the marshes on the landward side of Masonboro are doing quite well. They are lush and healthy and extend more than a mile landward of the berm. Note that in this location there are a few patches of maritime shrub plants. These suggest...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Beach erosion
In Small sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 16
Figure 14 shows how beach erosion has undermined the deck and foundations of the houses in the foreground and apparently has threatened to do the same in the multifamily dwelling behind them. Note the remnants of an earlier dune on the right, and the roadway...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Protected habitat
In Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 7
Figure 6 shows you an example of the protection system discussed on the previous page. The live oak on the left side of this photograph is growing in the lee of the sand dune in the background. This dune actually curves around to the left of the tree as well....
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Dunes nearer the ocean
In Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 9
Figure 8 shows the Bear Island dunefield nearer the ocean than those shown in previous photographs and also closer to the inlet that separates Bear Island from Bogue Banks. Bogue Banks, our next stop on this field trip, is a developed barrier island, as you...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Seaward slope of a dune
In Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 14
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...
By Dirk Frankenberg.
Satellite image of North Carolina's barrier islands
Satellite image of North Carolina's barrier islands
Format: image/photograph