HR: 14:30h
AN: OS33A-05    [Abstracts]
TI: On the Role of Tropical Cyclones and Winter Storms in the Short-Term Evolution of the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico.
AU: * Stone, G W
EM: gagreg@lsu.edu
AF: Coastal Studies Institute, and Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, La 70803 United States
AU: Sallenger, A H
EM: asalleger@usgs.gov
AF: Center for Coastal and Watershed Studies U.S. Geological Survey, 600 4th. St. South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 United States
AU: Liu, B
EM: bliu@lsu.edu
AF: Coastal Studies Institute, and Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, La 70803 United States
AB: Recent data suggest that the North-central Gulf of Mexico coast has undergone an increase in the number of tropical cyclone landfalls over the past decade. Louisiana State University and the USGS has monitored the Florida panhandle and Alabama coasts since the mid 1990's using airborne LIDAR and field surveys. The resultant data sets provide a unique time series capturing morphological change and post-storm adjustment due to two powerful events (Opal, 1995 and Ivan, 2004), weaker hurricanes and numerous tropical storms. In this paper we document a unique response of this coast to storm surge/wave inundation and present the concept of "barrier mass conservation". We also demonstrate the significance of locally generated, high frequency waves in estuaries/bays during winter storms and discuss their role in the short-term evolution of Holocene barriers along this region of coast. In an otherwise tectonically stable region of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, the coast appears to be storm dominated and undergoing a reduction in sediment volume in the sub-aerial barrier unit, a phenomenon that appears attributable to storm dominance.
DE: 3020 Littoral processes
DE: 4200 OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL
DE: 4263 Ocean prediction
DE: 4560 Surface waves and tides (1255)
DE: 4564 Tsunamis and storm surges
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly