High-Resolution Seismic Stratigraphy of North Carolina Continental Margin, Cape Fear Terrace: Sea Level Cyclicity, Paleobathymetry, and Gulf Stream Dynamics: ABSTRACT

A patch recognition algorithm was applied to high-resolution (1 m vertical and 25 m horizontal) daytime sonar date collected from a 20-km-length transect to a depth of 200 m. The transect was oriented perpendicular to the Gulf Stream frontal zone, 105 km east–northeast ENE of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on August 8 1985. An adaptive high-pass filter was used to identify patches of high-intensity echo strengths. For a broad based averaging "window size" of 13 m deep by 1.4 km long and an echo strength threshold of 1.4 × integrated echo units patches resemble fine-scale features of the original echogram. A discrimination of patches using sonar statistics from within the patches gave good separation of slope water patches from patches belonging to four other water masses Slope water patches were characteristically small and of low mean scattering. Large but infrequent targets were present In the Gulf Stream, by contrast, patches contained more uniformly distributed targets with a higher mean scattering The observed correlation between echo patches, biological structures, and oceanographic features suggests that the measurement of echo statistics and our patch recognition techniques produce biologically meaningful parameters.

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Effects of human activities and sea level rise on wetland ecosystems in the Cape Fear River Estuary, North Carolina, USA

Biological Conservation ◽

10.1016/0006-3207(92)90665-a ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 59 (2-3) ◽

pp. 277

Keyword(s):

North Carolina ◽

Sea Level Rise ◽

Sea Level ◽

Human Activities ◽

River Estuary ◽

Wetland Ecosystems ◽

Cape Fear River ◽

Cape Fear ◽

And Sea Level

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Modern saltmarsh diatom distributions of the Outer Banks, North Carolina, and the development of a transfer function for high resolution reconstructions of sea level

Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science ◽

10.1016/j.ecss.2006.05.007 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 69 (3-4) ◽

pp. 381-394 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

Benjamin P. Horton ◽

Reide Corbett ◽

Stephen J. Culver ◽

Robin J. Edwards ◽

Caroline Hillier

Keyword(s):

North Carolina ◽

High Resolution ◽

Transfer Function ◽

Sea Level ◽

Outer Banks

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Rapid Holocene coastal change revealed by high-resolution micropaleontological analysis, Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, USA

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/j.yqres.2011.06.012 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 76 (3) ◽

pp. 319-334 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Candace Grand Pre ◽

Stephen J. Culver ◽

David J. Mallinson ◽

Kathleen M. Farrell ◽

D. Reide Corbett ◽

...

Keyword(s):

North Carolina ◽

High Resolution ◽

Sea Level ◽

Environmental Variability ◽

Planktonic Foraminifera ◽

Coastal Change ◽

Outer Banks ◽

Pamlico Sound ◽

High Resolution Analysis ◽

Marine Influence

AbstractForaminiferal analyses of 404 contiguous samples, supported by diatom, lithologic, geochronologic and seismic data, reveal both rapid and gradual Holocene paleoenvironmental changes in an 8.21-m vibracore taken from southern Pamlico Sound, North Carolina. Data record initial flooding of a latest Pleistocene river drainage and the formation of an estuary 9000 yr ago. Estuarine conditions were punctuated by two intervals of marine influence from approximately 4100 to 3700 and 1150 to 500 cal yr BP. Foraminiferal assemblages in the muddy sand facies that accumulated during these intervals contain many well-preserved benthic foraminiferal species, which occur today in open marine settings as deep as the mid shelf, and significant numbers of well-preserved planktonic foraminifera, some typical of Gulf Stream waters. We postulate that these marine-influenced units resulted from temporary destruction of the southern Outer Banks barrier islands by hurricanes. The second increase in marine influence is coeval with increased rate of sea-level rise and a peak in Atlantic tropical cyclone activity during the Medieval Climate Anomaly. This high-resolution analysis demonstrates the range of environmental variability and the rapidity of coastal change that can result from the interplay of changing climate, sea level and geomorphology in an estuarine setting.

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