An integrated hypothesis for regional patterns of shoreline change along the Northern North Carolina Outer Banks, USA

Combining analyses of plan-view shoreline change and shoreline curvature with existing nearshore geologic and bathymetric data and the results of a recent theoretical, large-scale shoreline-evolution model that couples geologic framework to alongshore sediment transport, we propose an integrated explanation for persistent patterns of shoreline change observed on the northern Outer Banks of North Carolina, USA. Concentrated sources of coarse-grained sediment, derived from relict fluvial stratigraphy or densely grouped relict inlet channels excavated from the shoreface, may both enable persistence of nearshore bathymetric anomolies and control multi-km-scale undulations in shoreline curvature, which in turn affect gradients in wave-driven alongshore sediment transport that drive long-term shoreline change.