Moving Islands and Lighthouses

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Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Buxton, North Carolina

Frisco Campground is just a few miles southwest of what they call 'The Outer Banks Elbow'. That's the sharp turn the islands make pretty much right in the middle, so, on a map, this point is the most eastern point of North Carolina. Why it makes that turn is all tied up in the formation of these islands.

The sand here is almost entirely small kernels of what used to be a massive range of mountains we now call the Appalachians. Formed more than 200 million years ago when North America collided with Europe to form Pangea. Geologists believe these mountains were originally as tall and massive as the Rockies and possibly even the Himalayas. Weathering by wind and water, though, always wins in the long run and 200 million years is a fairly long run. Nowadays those mountains don't amount to a whole lot. Over time, too, Pangea broke up as the Mid-Atlantic rift opened and began spewing volcanic matter up onto the ocean floor splitting the continents again and sending North America and Europe in opposite directions. The gap filled in with water forming the Atlantic Ocean.

But matter doesn't just disappear, so where does all that mountain rock go? Reduced to smaller and smaller sizes, these grains find there way, with help from rivers and wind, into the ocean where they are met with the currents and streams that keep the oceans engines running. Most of the sand ends up on the continental shelf and helps expand the continent. But the flow downward out of the Chesapeake River sends sand in a southern direction. Meanwhile the Gulf Stream, headed north and east meets that flow right at Cape Hatteras. Well, actually out to see many miles, but it comes out above sea level at the Cape. When these two streams meet they interfere with each other, create turbulence, and the reduced velocity drops the kernels of sand the water was carrying. Wave action pushes the sand westward and it eventually builds up to form the Outer Banks with the 'elbow' right at Cape Hatteras.

As the ranger in her talk at the park pointed out, these islands are very dynamic and move in response to wave and wind action as well as rising and falling sea levels. With normal variations in sea levels, the wind and surf can move the dunes back and forth and keep up, the islands staying above water. If sea level rises too fast, these natural mechanisms may not be able to respond quickly and the islands will be submerged. Many scientists think that is happening now and the outer banks will likely be submerged, possibly within a few decades. Yes, they might re-emerge at a later time, but it will be measured in geologic time, not by the human calendar.

This tension between the islands and the sea has a human dimension to it that became very clear as we traveled the island. Some of us might like to think that the outer banks are all under the stewardship of the National Park Service, or at least some agency with a long term view of the island process and what nature is trying to do here. But that isn't the case. The National Seashore encompasses a great deal of the islands and most of the Atlantic side beaches. But there are pockets that are developed as fishing, recreation, and tourist villages and settlements. These villages are, of course, not subject to NPS rules and regulations. They have their own standards and are very interested in sustaining their economic viability. They live here, damn-it! Tourists only visit.

So imagine the conflicts that can develop when the Park Service tries to maintain a long term view of the islands as moving systems that have no understanding of permanence, while the villagers are very interested in maintaining both their livelihood and the foundations of their own homes? Can anyone say 'bitter opposition'?

This fight manifests itself in multiple ways, but one of them is what they call 'beach nourishment programs'. These engineering efforts vary a bit, but mostly it means that they dredge up boatloads of sand from wherever they can get it cheaply, and then dump it on their beach in order to replenish the sand that was moved westward by wind, surf, and, especially, hurricanes. The town of Buxton is starting a project this year to 'nourish' their 2.9 miles of the town beach which is located nearby but is NOT part of the national seashore. They are spending several million dollars on this project to try and stop the westward movement of their beach, retain the land their homes are built on, and keep their economy going. As I understand it, from an article in a local paper and the NPS ranger talk, this money is coming from the hotel and restaurant taxes that us tourists pay when we visit, not federal money.

Scientists view 'nourishment' programs with some skepticism. At best, they believe, it will only buy a few years of relief from the westward movement of the islands. The only permanent solution would be one huge engineering effort to redirect ocean currents and stop the rise of sea levels, but no-one has the faintest idea how to do that and question the sanity of such a massive interference anyway. There are also the possible deleterious effects on the areas where the dredging occurs that usually go unstudied.

The Park Service, using available science, does not tend to support 'nourishment' programs and, at least so far, does not allow them on their beaches. So the park service portion of these islands will continue to move westward according to Mother Nature's plan. The village portion of these islands are going to move at a somewhat slower rate, depending on how much money they can pump into these sand engineering projects. If you think about it a while, the result could mean an even earlier end to these islands as we start cutting them into sections each with different rates of movement westward.

As we were driving down the main island highway through Buxton, I saw a permanent-looking sign right off the road that had a picture of a hand giving the middle finger. Under neath the text read "NPS: Identify This Bird". Kind of cute, I suppose, but it also reflects the bitterness of the conflict here. Townsfolk are simply trying to protect their way of life while the Park Service is charged with protecting the seashore and the islands in as natural a state as possible. The sad thing is that, in the long run, these villages won't be here. Of course, as Keynes said, "in the long run we are all dead anyway!"

Did I mention that North Carolina, and especially these villages, is Trump Country??

Despite the politics, we had a terrific visit to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Unlike Cape Lookout, this one was open and we climbed 268 steps to the top for some fabulous views of the cape and the islands that form the elbow. Although I don't have a 'lighthouse bucket list', I can see why folks do them.

After the trek up and down, we visited the lighthouse museum which had an intriguing exhibit on how they moved this structure in 1999. I remember the excitement generated by that engineering effort. Keep in mind that this is the tallest brick lighthouse in the world and weighs accordingly, so cutting this thing from its foundations, raising it a few feet to get rollers under it, and then moving it just five feet at a time a total distance of 2900 feet, was a rather spectacular accomplishment.

And why did they move it? Because in the last 100 years the island had moved enough that the foundation was becoming exposed to pounding surf. I suppose there is a bit of hypocrisy in moving the lighthouse instead of allowing it to succumb to the forces of nature - I would have liked to have been a fly-on-the-wall for those discussions.

But it also shows how, in just a few generations, man-made structures are made obsolete by these shifting islands. You can't stop nature, and often suffer more by trying!(17.1.62)

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Photos

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Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

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Freshwater Marsh behind the Dunes

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Buxton and the Ocean

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The Beach

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Lighthouse Keeper's Residences Below

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Its Not All Sand on These Islands

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Lighthouse Puffing Away

Comments

[Jennieywms]

Before and after the move
Saw the lighthouse right before it was moved and then right after when they were still settling the foundation. What a difference! and what a project!