North Carolina
Landforms are constantly changing in the Outer Banks as storms, wind, and waves pummel the sandy islands and sandbars.
The Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States are ringed by more than 300 barrier islands. These long, narrow, sandy islands, seen from the air running parallel to the mainland, are among the most dynamic landforms in the world, constantly changing in the face of wind, waves, and weather. North Carolina’s Outer Banks are textbook examples of barrier islands, appearing from the air as a line of narrow islands and peninsulas just off the state’s coastline. Their fraught history of storms and shipwrecks highlights the dangers of living on and boating near these ever-changing landforms.
Barrier islands are formed by dynamic interactions between gradually rising sea levels, a surplus of sand along the coast, and the erosive forces of wind and waves. The variability of such factors makes these islands inherently unstable; indeed, the number of islands and inlets often changes after storms. The barrier islands of the Outer Banks are typically one to three miles wide and ten to twenty miles long, located between two and twenty miles offshore. These islands lack any rock base; instead they are built from piled-up sand, on average no higher than ten to twenty feet above sea level, although some dunes pile taller than a hundred feet. When storms hit such islands, erosion can be devastating to people, structures, and infrastructure. Hurricanes and tropical storms make landfall in the Outer Banks every few years, often with destructive and expensive results.
Hurricanes and storms often cause overflow and flooding of the Outer Banks, as seen here after Hurricane Irene in 2011. Floodwaters breached North Carolina Highway 12, cutting off thousands of people on Hatteras Island from the mainland.
Despite this instability, the Outer Banks have existed for about 4000 years and have been settled and developed for centuries, with some of the more populated islands, such as Bodie Island, home to several thousand people. Other islands have been preserved in their natural, undeveloped states; nine of the most scenic islands are designated by the National Park Service as national seashores and wildlife refuges. The estuaries tucked between the barrier islands and the mainland are some of the richest and most productive coastal ecosystems in the United States, providing nurseries, shelter, and food for many species of fish, shellfish, birds, and other wildlife.
Offshore the Outer Banks is the Graveyard of the Atlantic, where 5000-odd ships have wrecked on the shifting, sandy shoals hidden just beneath the waves. A number of lighthouses have been erected along this stretch of coast, in hopes of warning disoriented ships away from deceptively shallow depths. The waters off Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout, and Cape Fear, North Carolina, have all claimed more than their fair share of ships and lives. A high-profile tragedy occurred in October 2012, when the HMS Bounty sank off Cape Hatteras in the high waves of Hurricane Sandy, killing the captain and a crew member.
Look for the narrow islands and peninsulas of the Outer Banks en route to Norfolk, Virginia, or Raleigh, North Carolina.
