Using the Image Below, Answer the Questions Below

Module 3 Worksheet

Instructions:

Using the image below, answer the questions below.

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 provide 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 correspond 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 previous coastal feature (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 location of this feature. Hint: it is a 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? Hint: 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 4. What do these difference 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? 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.