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USGS Coastal Carolina Project 2002 - Kitty Hawk

Coastal Carolina Project 2002 - Kitty Hawk
Program

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologic discipline (GD) scientists from Woods Hole, MA, Coastal and Marine Geology Program and their collaborators are mapping the regional sedimentary framework of the inner shelf of northern North Carolina to understand recent coastal processes, including erosion and the impacts of shoreline change. The USGS-GD as part of their ongoing research to better quantify the Coastal Sedimentary System in Northern North Carolina have an extensive research program in place.

The USGS water resources discipline (WRD) in cooperation with Dare County is looking to water level fluctuations in this coastal area. The USGS-GD, of Woodshole MA, drilled 8 roto-sonic test holes in the Outer Banks area, near Kitty Hawk, in 2002. The USGS-WRD, out of Raleigh NC geophysically logged these test holes and select wells were instrumented with piezometers. There were 3 of these 8 test holes selected, based on monitoring criteria, to have piezometers installed. These wells will provide additional data and on the ground water and subsurface geology for a better understanding of the outer banks flow-system. The ground-water monitoring information from these sites will supplement existing knowledge of salt-water intrusion and fresh-water occurrence in the Outer Banks barrier island system. USGS-WRD personnel are planning to monitoring water levels and salinity in two of the three wells.

The North Carolina Geological Survey (NCGS) personnel, Bill Hoffman and Bob Brooks, collected and transported the core samples to the NCGS core archive facility in Raleigh, NC where they have been split and sampled for stratigraphic, paleontological, and geochemical analysis.