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Geomorphologic evolution of a rapidly deteriorating barrier island system with multiple sediment sources: Eastern Isles Dernieres, Louisiana, 1887 to 2006

Trinity, East, and Wine Islands make up the eastern half of the Isles Dernieres barrier arc in south-central Louisiana. Formed following the abandonment of the Lafourche delta complex, subsidence and storm erosion have led to rapid deterioration of the system. Since 1887, the land area of the islands has decreased seventy-seven percent, and the gulf shoreline has retreated landward more than a kilometer. Wave ravinement on the shoreface of the islands is responsible for the most sediment loss; liberated sediment travels longshore to tidal inlets. The dominant ebb tidal currents then transport the sediment to where it is deposited in ebb tidal deltas or carried to the west, out of the system. A large lobe of sediment bypassing Cat Island Pass is entering the system from the eastern lower shoreface, which helps replace some of the sediment lost through wave ravinement to the upper shoreface.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:uno.edu/oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-2636
Date15 December 2012
CreatorsKirkland, Benjamin T
PublisherScholarWorks@UNO
Source SetsUniversity of New Orleans
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceUniversity of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

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