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Sound-Side Inundation and Seaward Erosion of a Barrier Island during Hurricane Landfall
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  • Christopher R. Sherwood,
  • Andy Ritchie,
  • Jin-Si R Over,
  • Christine J Kranenburg,
  • Jonathan A Warrick,
  • Brown A. Jenna,
  • C. Wayne Wright,
  • Alfredo L. Aretxabaleta,
  • Sara Zeigler,
  • Phillipe Alan Wernette,
  • Daniel Buscombe,
  • Christie A Hegermiller,
  • Jenna A. Brown
Christopher R. Sherwood
United States Geological Survey, United States Geological Survey, United States Geological Survey

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Andy Ritchie
United States Geological Survey, United States Geological Survey, United States Geological Survey
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Jin-Si R Over
USGS, USGS, USGS
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Christine J Kranenburg
U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey
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Jonathan A Warrick
United States Geological Survey, United States Geological Survey, United States Geological Survey
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Brown A. Jenna
U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey
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C. Wayne Wright
C. Wayne Wright Consulting, Inc., C. Wayne Wright Consulting, Inc., C. Wayne Wright Consulting, Inc.
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Alfredo L. Aretxabaleta
U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey
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Sara Zeigler
U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey
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Phillipe Alan Wernette
U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey
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Daniel Buscombe
USGS, USGS, USGS
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Christie A Hegermiller
Sofar Ocean, Sofar Ocean, Sofar Ocean
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Jenna A. Brown
US Geological Survey
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Abstract

Barrier islands are especially vulnerable to hurricanes and other large storms, owing to their mobile composition, low elevations, and detachment from the mainland. Conceptual models of barrier-island evolution emphasize ocean-side processes that drive landward migration through overwash, inlet migration, and aeolian transport. In contrast, we found that the impact of Hurricane Dorian (2019) on North Core Banks, a 36-km barrier island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, was primarily driven by inundation of the island from Pamlico Sound, as evidenced by storm-surge model results and observations of high-water marks and wrack lines. Analysis of photogrammetry products from aerial imagery collected before and after the storm indicate the loss of about 18% of the subaerial volume of the island through the formation of over 80 erosional washout channels extending from the marsh and washover platform, through gaps in the foredunes, to the shoreline. The washout channels were largely co-located with washover fans deposited by earlier events. Net seaward export of sediment resulted in the formation of deltaic bars offshore of the channels, which became part of the post-storm berm recovery by onshore bar migration and partial filling of the washouts with washover deposits within two months. The partially filled features have created new ponds and lowland habitats that will likely persist for years. We conclude that this event represents a setback in the overwash/rollover behavior required for barrier transgression.