Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Sandman
Took a ride out there this morning...
1) The breach is closing up quick (middle pic), there is a long spit that goes into the pond that I thik will swing back and close it up.
2) bars/islands are forming parallel to the beach (third pic)
3) Air down lot is long gone Strong erosion along the mainland part of happy...15-25' cliffs now where there was once a flat sandy swimming beach.
4) breach is right up against "mainland" chappy now (it can not move further east)
3) Wasque point as you knew it is gone. At "the fishermans parking lot" The water has washed out the stairs and elevated dock. Swan pond is now part of the Atlantic ocean. An amazing amount of sand is shifted. A few photos below.
I plan to go to Nantucket by plane next weekend and will try to take some aerial shots when I pass by if the weather is decent.
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I haven't been tracking coastal stuff down here much lately so I'm a bit out of touch, but I've been looking over my colleague's shoulder a bit and made a few surveys w/ him over the holidays...
1. It's been a mild winter. It has also been relatively storm-free, although a few minor storms took some bites out of the RI coast in January.. I think I speculated when it breached it would close if there was a relatively storm free period...
2. Is that outside the inlet (aka an ebb-tidal delta)? tough to tell from your pic...
4. Not uncommon. Longshore transport is net to the east (driven by SW wind-waves. If you look at RI, the only inlet not to the east is Charlestown (Ninigret) and that's a more complicated story. (The breachways are where they are for a reason). The spit grows via longshore transport, so it will tend to migrate east
*Caveats. 1. One big storm could reset it to where it was before... but lately, that's not the weather pattern we're in. 2. Opinion of a, (as SlowEddie calls me), a 'half-assed sand dune mechanic'