Do storms cause long-term beach erosion along the U.S. east barrier coast?
Do storms cause long-term beach erosion along the U.S. east barrier coast?
Journal of Geology (July 2002) 110 (4): 493-502
- Accomack County Virginia
- Atlantic Coastal Plain
- barrier islands
- beaches
- coastal sedimentation
- Dare County North Carolina
- Delaware
- Delmarva Peninsula
- Eastern U.S.
- erosion
- Fire Island
- geologic hazards
- landform evolution
- littoral erosion
- Long Island
- Maryland
- nearshore sedimentation
- New York
- North Carolina
- Outer Banks
- regression analysis
- sea-level changes
- sediment supply
- sedimentation
- shore features
- shorelines
- statistical analysis
- storms
- Suffolk County New York
- Sussex County Delaware
- United States
- Virginia
- Worcester County Maryland
- Assateague Island
- Hatteras Island
- Fenwick Island
- Indian River Inlet
- Cotton Patch Hill
In a few hours or days, scores of meters of beach width can be lost due to a severe storm. However, newly available shoreline data from the U.S. East Coast show that beaches recover after storms to positions consistent with their long-term (100 + yr) trend. Even the largest storms, such as the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962, considered to be the most damaging in the twentieth century, appear to have had little effect on the long-term trend. The gradual recession of beaches along the U.S. East Coast is mainly controlled by other factors such as sea-level rise and variations of sediment supply. Therefore, it follows that barrier beaches in a coastal plain setting would not experience long-term erosion in response to storm impact if the sea were to stop rising and sediment supply did not change.