INVESTIGATING MORPHOLOGICAL AND STRATIGRAPHIC CHANGES TO THE SUBMARINE SHOREFACE OF A TRANSGRESSIVE BARRIER ISLAND: FOLLETS ISLAND, NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO

摘要

Barrier islands are increasingly more vulnerable today to the impacts from sea level rise and storms. Therefore, it is important to document the changes from these events, to better understand how these systems may respond in the future. This study investigated the submarine shoreface of Follets Island, located in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, to document the impact from Hurricane Ike (2008), and longer-term process associated with increases in sea level rise. In 2013, high-resolution swath bathymetry, side scan sonar, and CHIRP subbottom profiling were used to map the island’s shoreface. The results showed that the shoreface experienced net erosion from the hurricane. Over the longer-term however, processes associated with sea level rise have resulted in a variety of erosional and depositional areas across the shoreface. These results highlight the complexities of barrier-island-shoreface sedimentation, and give insight to how barrier islands respond to storm events, and rising sea level.