University Park ONLY: Formative Assessment: Coastal Evolution

Note:This Formative Assesment is intended for Blended classes with an in-person lab session only. If you are taking this class through World Campus or as an Online Only class, you can still complete the assignment, but you will NOT receive credit.

Coastal Evolution

Assignment:

The objective of this assignment is to explore how a coastline has evolved from aerial photographs.

Use the image below to answer the questions that follow.

Note: You will use the Worksheet linked below to complete and turn in your assignment to be graded. Download the Rubric to see how the Assignment will be graded. It will help you do your best work!

Files

Download this Worksheet (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 473kB Sep7 16)

Download this Rubric (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 16kB Sep7 16)

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Figure 3.26: Barrier island and tidal inlet system along South Carolina coast of eastern United States.

This oblique picture shows a barrier island and tidal inlet system along the South Carolina coast of the eastern United States. The morphological relationships of this coastal system reveal a complex history. Different processes have operated in different locations in the past, which is evident by looking at the morphological relationships of the area. Some things to examine are: 1) the geometry of boundaries between bare sand and thickly vegetated sand, 2) the different types of vegetation (e.g., sparsely vegetated grass areas and thick, vegetation and shrubs), 3) the form of land-water boundaries. All of these types of features provide information about the current processes shaping this system as well as the past processes that created this geomorphology. For example: the morphology of the inlet and adjacent beaches tells us about spit formation and migration into the inlet, tidal inlet migration and changes in inlet location, inlet closures, the location of previous shorelines, as well as coastal hazards. Each of the numbered locations on the map corresponds to the following numbered questions. You should reexamine the figures showing tidal inlets in the barrier islands section of this module while attempting to answer these questions.

Answer the following questions for this assessment:

Location: 1. What was the body of water identified in this module that extends at 1 along the length of the solid white line? The present beach at location 2 now closes off the seaward side of this feature. Hint: it is a relatively deep area of water that extends to the present channel in the direction that the arrow is pointing.

Location: 2. Why did a sandy beach form in front of the body of water at Location 1 to cause the closure? Hint: What is the process that delivers sediment to this area?

Location: 3. The island tip on the bottom part of the picture contains curved lineations that are covered by dark-green vegetation. What are they, and what depositional process do they represent? You may want to read question 4 before answering this question.

Location: 4. This area also contains curved lineations that are covered by less robust vegetation than the lineations of Location 3. Examine and compare the degree of vegetation and type of vegetation (grass vs. shrubs) of Location 3 and Location 4. What do these differences tell you about the differences in the formation age of each location? Which lineations formed first, and which lineations formed most recently?

Location: 5. What does the dashed line at this location represent? What boundary does it represent? If you were developing this area for pricey vacation homes, what areas would you avoid developing and why? Again, examine the difference in vegetation immediately located on each side of the dashed line and the significance of the dashed line approximately paralleling the white arrow of water body 1.