LATITUDE 

 T 36°00' 



*^?~ 



LEGEND 



• ABOUT 1850 TO 

 ABOUT 1915 



■ ABOUT 1915 TO 

 1980 



CROAT AN SHORES 

 NAGS HEAD 



13.1 



OREGON INLET 



RODANTHE 



AVON 



CAPE HATTER AS 



I 



-4-2 2 4 



AVERAGE SOUND SHORELINE CHANGES, M/YEAR 



Figure 36. Average sound shoreline changes, for the periods from 

 about 1850 to about 1915 and from about 1915 to 1980, between 

 Nags Head and Cape Hatteras, N. C. 



(dimming 1966). With time, a channel was cut and deepened. Tidal currents 

 through the inlet throat have since kept it from filling with littoral sedi- 

 ments carried in a shore-parallel direction. 



85. The inlet has not remained fixed in its original position, nor has 

 its shape nor the shape of the adjacent islands remained constant. Figure 37 

 shows the changes that have occurred since the inlet opened. (The dashed line 

 is the 1849 shoreline included for comparison purposes; note that a short 

 reach of shoreline south of Oregon Inlet was not surveyed during the 1915-1917 

 period.) Between about 1849 and 1980 the average inlet migration rate (i.e., 

 the shore-parallel (north-south) movement of the midpoint of the narrowest 

 part of the inlet throat) to the south for Oregon Inlet was approximately 

 29 m/year. As shown in Figure 38 this rate varied greatly from one survey 

 interval to the next. The most rapid movement of the midpoint, 87.5 m/year 

 south between 1963 and 1975, occurred just after a severe storm on 6 and 

 7 March when the inlet widened and migrated north. 



74 



