SGER: Impact of Hurricane Georges and Recovery Along NE Gulf Coast

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9903984StoneThe recent landfall of Hurricane Georges along the Mississippi coast has afforded us a unique opportunity to address an as yet unanswered question: "How does the post-storm response of a typically sediment rich, regressive/progradational system compare with that of a sediment starved, typically transgressive barrier system?" The post-storm adjustment of sediment rich, retrogressive systems has not been investigated in any detail. However, our preliminary investigations indicate that the longer term evolution of fluvially dominated systems in a coastal environment, such as the modern Mississippi River delta plain, are likely significantly influenced by catastrophic events such as Hurricane Georges---particularly on their seaward margins where subdelta growth is occurring and distributaries are prograding. While the response to the storm is evident and will be documented in more detail in this study, the post-storm adjustment phase is not at all understood. In addition, our understanding of the initial phases of barrier island recovery after severe storms is based primarily on supposition, largely governed by our interpretation of the day-to-day dynamics of coastal systems and associated processes during fairweather and storms of lesser magnitude. Our primary objective is to quantify and better comprehend the post-storm adjustment of two geomorphologically distinct environments: an actively building, fluvially dominated, sediment rich environment located in the Birdsfoot delta, Louisiana and a sediment starved, transgressive system comprised of Chandeleur Island (Louisiana), West Ship Island (Mississippi) and Santa Rosa Island (Florida) by establishing key monitoring sites that can be reoccupied over time.