Bogue Inlet

Figure 9. The bare sand behind the grassland is the overwash fan from a recent hurricane. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)

Figure 9 shows the Bear Island beach near Bogue Inlet. This area appears as a white band in the right middle distance in Figure 8.

Note the almost continuous maritime grassland in the foreground and bare sand stretching back into the salt marsh on the shore of the inlet. These views both show the importance of vegetation in stabilizing sand on coastal barrier islands. The maritime grassland community in the foreground has maintained grass coverage that has held the salt under it in place through four recent hurricanes.

That is not the case for the sand closer to the inlet. The broad sand patches are the result of storm waves washing up the beach and over the dunes carrying sand into the salt marsh behind. These sand bodies, known as overwash fans, were pointed out in the field trip to Masonboro and Topsail Islands (Small Sand Volume Barrier Islands). Their presence here indicates that even islands with high overall sand volumes may have areas of low sand volume that are unstable in strong storms and would therefore not be safe to develop.

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