Figure 5.22: Erosion was also significant during Hurricane Sandy and Katrina on the barrier islands. In this location on the northern end of Wallops Island, Virginia, near the Chincoteague Inlet, an entire beach and dune system was eroded adjacent to the inlet. The amount of erosion was so substantial that waves removed a 10 meter wide beach and a line of dunes that were built to a height of 8' to 9’ above the normal high tide line. The erosive scour exposed and eroded a line of trees and coastal shrubs that are seen in this photo. In this case, much of the erosion occurred after the storms moved north as storm surge waters rushed back out of Chincoteague Bay through the inlet to the ocean. The ebbing storm tide produced a very strong current that scoured out the margins of the inlet and deposited those sediments in the ebb tidal delta outside of the inlet. Due to wave action since the storm, many of these sediments are being reworked and a new beach and dune system is being developed where it was formerly eroded from.
Originally uploaded in Integrate:Teaching for Sustainability:InTeGrate Modules:Coastal Processes, Hazards and Society:Student Materials.
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