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HISTORICAL AND RECENT SHORELINE CHANGES,
IMPACTS OF MORICHES INLET,
AND RELEVANCE TO ISLAND BREACHING
AT FIRE ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE, NY
James R. Allen
US Geological Survey
Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
Boston, MA 02109
Charles L. LaBash and Peter
V. August
Environmental Data Center
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI 02882
P. Psuty
Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
April 2002
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Introduction
In the early 1990’s four storms, with recurrence intervals of several decades as measured by peak storm surge at the Sandy Hook, NJ tide gauge, caused much beach and dune retreat plus breaching of some barrier islands, in the northeastern United States. Each of the National Park units (Gateway National Recreation Area (GATE), Fire Island National Seashore (FIIS), and Cape Cod National Seashore (CACO)) were impacted differently but the additive combination of storms upon prior impacts led to incremental losses beyond that measured by individual stage-recurrence levels. The December 1992 storm contributed especially high wave energy over a long period of storm disturbance, as the surge exceeded 0.3 m for ten high tides as measured at Sandy Hook, with a peak height of 1.4 m. This study measures the natural and cultural responses of the system over the past five years to the shoreline changes driven by this unusual storm pattern....
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