Geology topics

Research about Pea Island

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Pea Island.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2023

Modeling total water level and coastal change at Pea Island, North Carolina, USA

The DUring Nearshore Event eXperiment (DUNEX) was carried out on Pea Island, North Carolina, USA between September-October 2021. We use a coupled numerical model (Windsurf) to hindcast the evolution of the DUNEX transect and produce a time series of hourly water levels at the shoreline from the model output. In addition to assessing the ability of Windsurf to reproduce TWL, we use model output paired with an ensemble of empirical models to assess how TWL forecasts can be improved by incorporating dynamic morphology. The morphological hindcast achieved an RMSE of 0.10 m and a BSS of 0.47, while the total water level (TWL) time series from the model correlates with the U.S. Geological Survey forecast (r 2 = 0.61) for the study period but with a 0.47 m bias that is primarily due to the much steeper beach slope used to produce the forecast compared to that surveyed at the start of the study period. We find that using dynamic morphology provides a small but statistically significant (α = 0.05) improvement in predicting TWL versus applying the pre-storm beach slope to the whole time series.

North Carolina↗

USGS2016

Barrier island breach evolution: Alongshore transport and bay-ocean pressure gradient interactions

Physical processes controlling repeated openings and closures of a barrier island breach between a bay and the open ocean are studied using aerial photographs and atmospheric and hydrodynamic observations. The breach site is located on Pea Island along the Outer Banks, separating Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic Ocean. Wind direction was a major control on the pressure gradients between the bay and the ocean to drive flows that initiate or maintain the breach opening. Alongshore sediment flux was found to be a major contributor to breach closure. During the analysis period from 2011 to 2016, three hurricanes had major impacts on the breach. First, Hurricane Irene opened the breach with wind-driven flow from bay to ocean in August 2011. Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 quadrupled the channel width from pressure gradient flows due to water levels that were first higher on the ocean side and then higher on the bay side. The breach closed sometime in Spring 2013, most likely due to an event associated with strong alongshore sediment flux but minimal ocean-bay pressure gradients. Then, in July 2014, Hurricane Arthur briefly opened the breach again from the bay side, in a similar fashion to Irene. In summary, opening and closure of breaches are shown to follow a dynamic and episodic balance between along-channel pressure gradient driven flows and alongshore sediment fluxes.

Pea Island↗

USGS1955

Winter losses of Canada geese at Pea Island, North Carolina

Report of research and findings to date. Topics discussed include: studies on life history and biology of gizzard worm; results of autopsies; experiments on survival and transmission of gizzard worm eggs and larvae in both field and laboratory; persistence of infections; and results of infections in geese of different ages. Cause of deaths has not been finally determined, but indications are that gizzard worm is an important contributing factor and that poor physical condition, brought about at least partially by malnutrition, also contributes to the losses.

North Carolina↗