Barrier Island Research Paper

Spreading along the east and gulf coast of the United States of America are unique geologic formations known as barrier islands. Not only are these landforms neat to visit, but also they have the important role of protecting the coastline by reducing the effects storm winds and waves can have. Barrier Islands, like Assateague Island, can form in different ways, but all are constantly undergoing changes from various factors. The focus of this paper will be how barrier islands form and move, these islands’ importance, and the vulnerability of Assateague Island. First, a simple definition provided in the Merriam- Webster dictionary of a barrier island is “a long broad sandy island lying parallel to a shore that is built up by the action of waves, …show more content…
Generally, scientists have narrowed it down to three different ways these islands have formed: offshore drive, spit accretion, and submergence. Offshore drive is driven by high wave energy stirring up sediment near the coast. Then the waves lose their energy and allow for the sediment to deposit and over time build up enough to break the surface of the ocean. The second theory, spit accretion, essentially occurs when violent storms break the connection to the mainland and thus form an island. The final accepted theory for barrier island formation, the submergence theory, is believed to be how Assateague Island formed. This theory suggests that at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, because of the large glaciers melting and sea level rising, beach ridges along the shoreline were drowned and became separated from the mainland by a …show more content…
Besides the natural beauty, the wild horses that roam the island are an exciting feature of the island. The National Park Service's protection of this landform mostly includes preventing the development of the island with large hotels and homes. Richard A. Davis Jr., from the Department of Geology at the University of Southern Florida, published an article about barrier islands in 2014. In the “management” section of the article, he discussed how many barrier islands today have become highly developed areas for tourists and residents, but that building on the islands could potentially cause many problems. One issue was that the infrastructures built on the islands were not designed to move inland with the islands. Additionally, structures built to protect the hotels and homes like seawalls, prohibit wash-over and landward migration. Barrier islands developed as natural barricades to the mainland and using them as a place to vacation and live could cause the loss of their