Download or read book Holocene Evolution of the Ocracoke Inlet Flood tide Delta Region Outer Banks North Carolina written by Caroline Faulkner Smith and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Numerous studies have been conducted along the Outer Banks (OBX) barrier islands of North Carolina to address Holocene climatic change using a combination of lithological, micropaleontological, stratigraphical, and geochronological data to reconstruct Holocene paleoenvironmental reconstructions. These data reveal the importance of inlet formation in the evolution of the modern barrier island chain. However, few studies have been conducted within the Ocracoke Inlet and its associated flood-tide delta (OFTD), which has been proposed to be the most stable inlet along the OBX. Detailed knowledge of the anatomy of the modern, active OFTD is necessary to further elucidate the origin and geologic evolution of Ocracoke Inlet and the OFTD region during the Holocene. Five vibracores, and ca. 100 km of seismic data (boomer and chirp) were collected from the Ocracoke Inlet flood-tide delta (OFTD). Twenty-six age estimates were obtained from the five vibracores (13 AMS radiocarbon age estimates, and 13 Optically Stimulated Luminescence-OSL age estimates). Sediments recovered are all Holocene, except a blue clay interpreted to be Pleistocene that is overlain by a basal peat (core VC1) interpreted to have formed in a freshwater riverine swamp forest (EF VI) environment at ca. 7200 cal yr BP. Sediments are predominantly fine-to-medium grained quartz sand, and contain foraminiferal assemblages composed of 41 taxa dominated by Elphidium excavatum and Ammonia parkinsoniana. Foraminiferal assemblages were used to define four biofacies. The geographical distribution of bio- and lithofacies is related to salinity and to distance from the inlet. Six environmental facies (EFs) were determined by correlating bio-, litho-, and seismic facies. Using the six EFs, three transects and five evolutionary time intervals were produced to reconstruct paleoenvironmental changes recorded in the OFTD region during the Holocene. From ca. 7200-6900 cal yr BP rising sea level caused the initial flooding of the paleo-Pamlico Creek drainage system that was characterized by a freshwater swamp environment (EF VI). Between ca. 6900-6600 cal yr BP EF VI transitioned to a high salinity estuarine environment (EF III). EF IV (undetermined, likely mid-to high salinity) estuarine environments characterized the OFTD region ca. 3400 cal yr BP. Flood-tide delta deposits (core VC3B) occurred in the study area ca. 1100 cal yr BP (during the Medieval Climate Anomaly-MCA) and Royal Shoal began to form ca. 500 cal yr BP (during the Little Ice Age-LIA), when Ocracoke Inlet was first documented in historical maps. EF V represents a sand flat/ shoal environment typical of surficial sediments, specifically near Royal Shoal (core VC2B). OFTD deposits (cores VC3B, VC5A, and VC8A) are characterized by two normal marine salinity FTD depositional environments (EF II-low energy and EF I-high energy). The OFTD region probably existed to the south of the study area when estuarine deposits characterized the study area and migrated northwards as sea-level rose.

Download or read book Barrier Dynamics and Response to Changing Climate written by Laura J. Moore and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-01-17 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents chapters, written by leading coastal scientists, which collectively depict the current understanding of the processes that shape barrier islands and barrier spits, with an emphasis on the response of these landforms to changing conditions. A majority of the world’s population lives along the coast at the dynamic intersection between terrestrial and marine ecosystems and landscapes. As narrow, low-lying landforms, barriers are especially vulnerable to changes in sea level, storminess, the geographic distribution of grass species, and the rate of sand supply—some barriers will undergo rapid changes in state (e.g., from landward migrating to disintegrating), on human time scales. Attempts by humans to prevent change can hasten the loss of these landforms, threatening their continued existence as well as the recreational, financial and ecosystem service benefits they provide. Understanding the processes and interactions that drive landscape response to climate change and human actions is essential to adaptation. As managers and governments struggle to plan for the future along low-lying coasts worldwide, and scientists conduct research that provides useful guidance, this volume offers a much-needed compilation for these groups, as well as a window into the science of barrier dynamics for anyone who is generally interested in the impacts of a changing world on coastal environments.

Download or read book Late Holocene Geologic Evolution of Central Ocracoke Island Outer Banks North Carolina written by Michael E. Hale and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Geology of Holocene Barrier Island Systems written by Richard A. Jr. Davis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Barrier islands represent a complex coastal system that includes a number of different sedimentary depositional environments; nearshore zone, beach, dunes, washover fans, marshes, tidal flats, estuaries, lagoons, and tidal inlets. The morphodynamics of these fragile coastal systems provide a further complication to this coastal type. Although barrier islands comprise only 15% of the world's coastline, they have received a far greater proportion of attention from the scientific and engineering community, and more recently, from coastal managers and environmentalists. Modern barrier islands are arguably the most expensive and most vulnerable of all coastal environments. Pressure from developers for residential, industrial, and recreational development has caused most of our barriers to become significantly impacted by human activity, especially over the past few decades. These pres sures have led to extensive preservation of natural barriers through efforts from all levels of government and also by private organizations. Governments have also formed coastal management programs that help to control any future de velopment with the intent being to keep human activity compatible with barrier island morphodynamics. In order to devise appropriate coastal zone management programs, it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the morpho dynamics of barrier island systems. This volume provides comprehensive details on barrier island morphology, sediment distribution, and the process-response mechanisms that cause changes to both. These are the important aspects of barrier systems that can provide important input into the development and implementation of coastal management programs.

Download or read book The Outer Banks of North Carolina written by Robert Dolan and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Holocene Geologic Development of the Hatteras Village Area Outer Banks North Carolina written by David F. Twamley and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Physiography and Sedimentology of the outer Banks Between Cape Lookout and Ocracoke Inlet North Carolina written by David Allen Rochna and published by . This book was released on 1961 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Using Sediment Organic Geochemistry to Interpret Late Holocene Barrier Island and Estuarine Evolution North Carolina USA written by Jeffrey J. Minnehan and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deconvolving the relationship between meteorological and oceanographic phenomena and associated impacts to coastal systems is critical to understanding the future of coastal systems worldwide. North Carolina's barrier islands, commonly known as the Outer Banks, and the associated Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine system is an example of a coastal ecosystem that will be affected in the future by such phenomena. Based on sedimentological and micropaleontological proxies, past research suggests that intense storm activity may have caused extensive segmentation of the Outer Banks during the Holocene. To gain a better understanding of meteorological and oceanographic factors affecting the evolution of North Carolina's coastal system, organic geochemical techniques were applied to sediments from two cores collected within Pamlico Sound. Specifically, down-core trends in total organic carbon (TOC), refractory black carbon (BC), refractory soot carbon, labile organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN), and their stable isotopic signatures ([delta]13C and [delta]15N) were analyzed in order to assess the varying inputs of marine and terrestrial organic matter into Pamlico Sound. In Chapter 1, TOC, BC/TOC, soot/TOC, TOC/TN, and [delta]13C[subscript]TOC were compared to a paleoclimatological proxy of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and interpretations of stages of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) throughout the mid-to-late Holocene. These phenomena have been suggested to influence southeast U.S. temperature, precipitation, and Atlantic hurricanes, all of which ultimately affect barrier island and estuarine evolution, as recorded in Pamlico Sound sediments. In general, there has been little consideration of carbon sequestered in coastal systems throughout the Holocene, a period that shows anthropogenic changes in the carbon cycle. This is an important omission, as most of the sediments exported by the world's major rivers are currently deposited on continental shelves (e.g., deltas and estuaries). Chapter 2 examines how the degree of barrier island segmentation affects abundance and source of carbon sequestered in Pamlico Sound throughout the mid-to-late Holocene. Total organic carbon sequestered in Pamlico Sound was calculated over the past 3500 years. Since the ultimate fate of TOC depends on its composition (e.g., whether it is labile or refractory), both OC and BC in sediments were quantified down-core. Results show that greater continuity of a barrier island chain significantly increased the amount of carbon sequestered in sediments. To our knowledge, this chapter provides the first quantitative estimate of the amount of carbon sequestered as a function of its composition since the mid-Holocene in any coastal system. The results of both chapters suggest that ENSO, NAO, eastern North Carolina temperature and precipitation, Atlantic storm activity, Outer Banks barrier island evolution, and coastal carbon sequestration were linked throughout the mid-to-late Holocene.

Download or read book Late Holocene Back barrier Development of Portsmouth Island Outer Banks North Carolina written by Jeb E. Rosenberger and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Holocene Evolution of a Nanotidal Brackish Marsh written by Stephen Boyd Benton and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Decadal scale Evolution of a Barrier Island written by Ian W. Conery and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eastern North Carolina has over 300 km of barrier islands that comprise the Outer Banks and act as an important buffer from the Atlantic Ocean and boundary to the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System. These islands also draw millions of visitors and dollars to the state every year. With sea-level rise and the persistence of extratropical and tropical storms, it is critical to examine the recent decadal response to storm events and geologic evolution in order to best prepare for future change. In this study, multiple methods were used to evaluate the recent decadal evolution of Ocracoke Island, NC. Shoreline change rates were calculated using a transect-based approach with imagery from 1949, 1974 and 2006. Other aerial imagery time steps were used to look at the spatial impact of historic storms and to select coring and trenching sites based on visible depositional history. The stratigraphic and sedimentological signature of recent and historic storm events was interpreted using seven vibracores and 32 trench excavations. Additionally, LiDAR data was used to assess morphologic change and to test a storm-impact scale based on storm surge, waves and maximum foredune height. The average long-term shoreline change rate for all of Ocracoke Island was determined to be - 0.54 m/yr. The majority of the island has been eroding (over 65% of transects), and the average erosion rate was greatest in the most recent period analyzed (1974-2006). The shoreline change rates highlight the narrowing of the island through time. In some regions island width has decreased by as much as 70% (180 m). Hurricane Isabel (2003) overwashed a total of 9% of the island area with an average thickness of 0.24 m. The storm-impact scale showed a quantitative relationship between overwash and pre-existing dune conditions along the coast. Sedimentation from Isabel represented up to 26% of total backbarrier subaerial volume and was comparable to dune volume loss. Isabel caused up to 40 m of sound-directed migration of the foredune and substantial oceanside erosion, representing more than 20% of long-term net change in some regions of the island. Four other distinct storm deposits were interpreted within the cores based on the sedimentological signatures of moderately to well-sorted fine to medium grained sand, coarse shell hash bases, and heavy mineral laminae. However, few cores had multiple deposits, indicating stacked overwash deposits are spatially and temporally variable. This collection of results shows the complexity of barrier island evolution and the necessity to examine soundward migration in three dimensions.

Download or read book Inland Dunes of North America written by Nicholas Lancaster and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-05-20 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inland sand dunes are widespread in North America and are found from the North Slope of Alaska to the Sonoran Desert in northern Mexico and from the Delmarva Peninsula in the east to Southern California in the west. In this edited book, we highlight recent research on areas of inland dunes that span a range from those that are actively accumulating in current conditions of climate and sediment supply to those that were formed in past conditions and are now degraded relict systems. This book will be of interest to researchers and scholars of physical geography, geomorphology, environmental sciences, and earth sciences. Contributions include detailed analyses of individual active dune systems at White Sands, New Mexico; Great Sand Dunes, Colorado; and the Laurentian Great Lakes; as well as the vegetation-stabilized dunes of the Nebraska Sand Hills and the Colorado Plateau. Additional chapters discuss the widespread partially vegetated dune systems of the central and southern Great Plains; the relict dunes of the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the eastern USA; and active and stabilized dunes of the Colorado Plateau and the southwestern deserts of the USA and northern Mexico.

Download or read book A Flood tidal Delta Complex the Holocene Pleistocene Boundary and Seismic Stratigraphy in the Quaternary Section Off the Southern Assateague Island Coast Virginia USA written by Christopher A. Maike and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Atlantic inner-shelf off the coast of Assateague Island preserves a complex stratigraphy in the Quaternary Section. Holocene highstands have been transgressing the island, yielding the current state. Seismic Reflection data off the Assateague Island coast reveal flood-tidal delta facies, tidal inlet channels, tidal creeks, and Holocene sand sheets. These facies indicate a former back-barrier environment off the Assateague Island coast, revealing a former offshore position of Assateague Island. The defining characteristic of the back-barrier environment is a flood-tidal delta complex approximately 4.5 km by 3.5 km. An isopach map of the flood-tidal delta reveals a ramp and facies thinning away from the ramp. Two main reflections are interpreted to be shoreface ravinements in the study area, which are time-transgressive subaqueous erosional surfaces produced during the landward movement of the transgressive systems tract. A third reflection is interpreted to be the pre-transgressive surface, marking the Holocene/Pleistocene Boundary. The depth of the pre-transgressive surface was interpreted throughout the entire study area. It resulted in a clean surface with a channel-like depression near seismic line 18. This depression is interpreted as being part of a lowstand drainage system.

Download or read book Tide and Time written by Justin Cook and published by . This book was released on 2021-05-15 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tide and Time is a photojournalism and reporting project by Justin Cook in collaboration with Southerly Magazine and The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting's Connected Coastlines Initiative? that documents the accelerating effects of climate change and erosion on North Carolina's Outer Banks. The work focuses on a tiny historic cemetery that is slowly washing into the Pamlico Sound.Through portraits, landscapes, aerial images, and interviews the work documents the locals trying to preserve the cemetery, the eroding marsh ecosystem around it, and Jean Hooper, 85, for whom the cemetery is sacred ground, and still wants to be buried there beside her husband and grandparents even if the sea eventually takes her bones. Justin also has a possible family connection to this story: His late grandfather was from the Outer Banks and the preservationists discovered that they share a distant ancestor who was once buried there, but years ago a storm sucked her casket into the Pamlico Sound.A decades-long erosion study and other research by prominent North Carolina sea level rise scientists informs the science in this project, and my work visually illustrates this science through the slow creep of climate change in the lives of ordinary people, and translates the science into a visual and emotional language to which the average person can relate. Tide and Time investigates the psychological impacts of climate change, particularly 'solastalgia,' or a sense of homesickness and loss that some Outer Banks locals feel while still at home as climate change renders their home unfamiliar.

Download or read book Intakes and Outfalls for Seawater Reverse Osmosis Desalination Facilities written by Thomas M. Missimer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 551 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book assembles the latest research on new design techniques in water supplies using desalinated seawater. The authors examine the diverse issues related to the intakes and outfalls of these facilities. They clarify how and why these key components of the facilities impact the cost of operation and subsequently the cost of water supplied to the consumers. The book consists of contributed articles from a number of experts in the field who presented their findings at the "Desalination Intakes and Outfalls" workshop held at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia in October, 2013. The book integrates coverage relevant to a wide variety of researchers and professionals in the general fields of environmental engineering and sustainable development.

Download or read book Holocene Evolution of a Portion of the North Carolina Coast written by J. W. Pierce and published by . This book was released on 1971 with total page 2371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Late Holocene Geologic Development of Pea Island and Avon Buxton Area Outer Banks North Carolina written by Christopher G. Smith and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: