As part of the DUring Nearshore Event eXperiment (DUNEX) we are mapping the geology and morphology of the nearshore coastal environment before and after weather events to assess the impact storms have on coastal erosion.
USGS DUNEX Operations on the Outer Banks
DUring Nearshore Event eXperiment (DUNEX) is a multi-agency, academic, and non-governmental organization (NGO) collaborative community experiment designed to study nearshore coastal processes during storm events.
DUNEX Research and Experiments
USGS participation in DUNEX will contribute new measurements and models that will increase our understanding of storm impacts to coastal environments, including hazards to humans and infrastructure and changes in landscape and natural habitats.
The configuration of the beach, dune, and nearshore sand bar system prior to a storm can influence the magnitudes and directions of sediment exchanges during storms and over subsequent recovery periods. It can also determine how sediment is partitioned between various barrier island environments (e.g., shoreface, beach, dunes, backbarrier). Shoreface geophysical data from other barrier islands suggests that the migration of the nearshore sand bar during storms creates sub-seafloor geologic features (e.g., stratigraphy) that may constrain the volume of sediment in the bar system, which may impact the rate of post-storm beach and dune recovery. Further, these stratigraphic features may indicate the maximum extent of offshore bar migration during a storm. An assessment of shoreface geology and morphology may help to estimate the magnitudes and directions of storm- and recovery-related sediment fluxes, how those fluxes are partitioned across barrier island environments, and how geologically-constrained bar volume changes over time. To this end, we have conducted a pre-storm geophysical survey aboard the USACE LARC that will be followed by a series of post-storm surveys.
The data collected as part of these efforts will allow us to 1) measure nearshore geology and morphology, 2) estimate storm- and recovery-related sediment fluxes and sand bar volume, and 3) understand the forces that do (or do not) develop shoreface morphology and stratigraphy through integration of our observations with other DUNEX efforts.
Below are other science projects associated with DUNEX Nearshore Geology .
USGS DUNEX Operations on the Outer Banks
DUNEX Hazards at Pea Island
DUNEX Aerial Imagery of the Outer Banks
DUNEX Modeling Waves, Water Levels, Sediment Transport, and Shoreline Change
DUNEX Pea Island Experiment
As part of the DUring Nearshore Event eXperiment (DUNEX) we are mapping the geology and morphology of the nearshore coastal environment before and after weather events to assess the impact storms have on coastal erosion.
USGS DUNEX Operations on the Outer Banks
DUring Nearshore Event eXperiment (DUNEX) is a multi-agency, academic, and non-governmental organization (NGO) collaborative community experiment designed to study nearshore coastal processes during storm events.
DUNEX Research and Experiments
USGS participation in DUNEX will contribute new measurements and models that will increase our understanding of storm impacts to coastal environments, including hazards to humans and infrastructure and changes in landscape and natural habitats.
The configuration of the beach, dune, and nearshore sand bar system prior to a storm can influence the magnitudes and directions of sediment exchanges during storms and over subsequent recovery periods. It can also determine how sediment is partitioned between various barrier island environments (e.g., shoreface, beach, dunes, backbarrier). Shoreface geophysical data from other barrier islands suggests that the migration of the nearshore sand bar during storms creates sub-seafloor geologic features (e.g., stratigraphy) that may constrain the volume of sediment in the bar system, which may impact the rate of post-storm beach and dune recovery. Further, these stratigraphic features may indicate the maximum extent of offshore bar migration during a storm. An assessment of shoreface geology and morphology may help to estimate the magnitudes and directions of storm- and recovery-related sediment fluxes, how those fluxes are partitioned across barrier island environments, and how geologically-constrained bar volume changes over time. To this end, we have conducted a pre-storm geophysical survey aboard the USACE LARC that will be followed by a series of post-storm surveys.
The data collected as part of these efforts will allow us to 1) measure nearshore geology and morphology, 2) estimate storm- and recovery-related sediment fluxes and sand bar volume, and 3) understand the forces that do (or do not) develop shoreface morphology and stratigraphy through integration of our observations with other DUNEX efforts.
Below are other science projects associated with DUNEX Nearshore Geology .