Table 41. length of barrier units between 1851 

 and 1978. 



Area 1851, 1856, 1886 1938 1952 1978 

 1868 

 (km) (km) (km) (km) (km) 



1 

 Nauset Spit- 4.9 4.4 3.5 2.8 



East ham 



Nauset Spit- 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.9 1.9 

 Orleans 



Old North 11.3 11.3 11.3 11.3 11.3 

 Beach 



New North 8.5 6.7 4.1 5.2 6.7 

 Beach 



1 No available maps. 



Nauset Inlet had migrated north by !4'<8 and a small spit, 70 meters long, 

 extended north from Nauset Heights. Nauset Inlet, which was only 236 meters 

 wide in 1938, continued to migrate northward. Between 1938 and 1952, the 

 inlet moved 1153 meters to the north by means of a breach that formed and wid- 

 ened approximately 800 meters north of the inlet. The isolated spit section 

 to 'he south then eroded. 



Although Nauset Spit-Orleans eroded back to Nauset Heights between 1938 

 and 1941, the spit rapidly extended to the north in the ensuing 37 years. 

 Between 1941 and 1952, Nauset Spit-Orleans extended 809 meters at a rate of 

 73.5 meters per year. More Chan 1023 meters were removed from the southern 

 end of Nauset Spit-Eastham during this period. In the years between 1952 

 and 1971, Nauset Spit-Easthaa again built to the south in a position west of 

 Nauset Spit-Orleans, incorporating a large salt-marsh island into the body 

 of the barrier. The channel into Nauset Harbor followed a circuitous path 

 between the two 6pits and passed below Nauset Heights into Nauset Harbor. In 

 1972 a new inlet was driven through Nauset Spit-Eastham during a northeaster 

 in the approximate location of the earlier inlet (1940's). Again the isolated 

 southern part of Nauset Spit-Eastham eroded except where dunes had formed on 

 the salt marsh that had been incorporated into the spit (New Island; Fig. 

 102). The inlet continued to move northward so that after the February 1978 

 northeaster, Nauset Spit-Eastham was only 2800 meters long. Nauset Spit- 

 Eastham receded 706 meters northward (27 meters per year) between 1952 and 

 1978, while Nauset Spit-Orleans extended 1038 meters (40 meters per ysar). 

 Concurrently, Nauset Inlet was narrowed from 606 meters in 1952 to 274 meters 

 in 1978. 



Spit growth or truncation is dependent on the direction of net littoral 

 transport, which appears to be variable through time near Nauset Inlet. The 

 northward migration of the inlet in recent years is probably the result of a 

 southerly shift in the nodal point to the vicinity of Nauset Heights and a net 

 northward movement of sediment along Nauset Spits — Eastham and Orleans (Fisher 

 and Simpson, 1979; Wright and Brenninkmeyer, 1979; Anders and Leatherman, 1980). 



Erosion along the Nauset Spit-Eastham shoreline has varied through tine 

 averaging 0.9 meter per year between 1856 and 1978 (Fig. 103; Table 42). The 



168 



