Impact of 1985 hurricanes on Isles Dernieres, Louisiana: Temporal and spatial analysis of coastal geomorphic changes

Conference · Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1989 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA)

OSTI ID:5112782

Debusshere, K; Westphal, K; Penland, S; McBride, R ^[1]

---

1. Louisiana Geological Survey, Baton Rouge (USA)

Catastrophic geomorphic changes occurred in the Isles Dernieres barrier island arc as a result of the direct impact of three hurricanes in 1985. The severity of the impact of hurricanes Danny, Elena, and Juan had not been equaled since the landfall of hurricanes Betsy and Camille in the late 1960s. The Isles Dernieres had not been subjected to a direct hurricane landfall since hurricane Bob in 1979. The recent hurricane impacts provided the USGS/LGS Louisiana Cooperative Barrier Island and Land Loss Study the opportunity to examine the process-response characteristics of this low-profile transgressive barrier island arc to multiple hurricane impacts in a single hurricane season. The geomorphic changes along the Isles Dernieres were determined using four sequential airborne videotape surveys acquired in July 1984, July 1985 (pre-storm), August 1985 (post-Danny) and November 1985 (post-Juan) and mapped on 1:24,000 base maps produced from concurrent vertical aerial photography. A coastal geomorphic classification was developed to describe, quantify, and map the alongshore geomorphic, sedimentologic , and vegetative character of this barrier shoreline. The classification consists of three levels of descriptors: (1) primary morphology to define the predominant longshore morphology, (2) modifiers to depict the small-scale longshore features, and (3) variants to locate and quantify important coastal features, not mappable at the scale used.

• OSTI ID: 5112782
• Report Number(s): CONF-8910221-; CODEN: AABUD
• Journal Information: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA), Vol. 73:9; Conference: Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies and Gulf Coast Section of SEPM meeting, Corpus Christi, TX (USA), 25-27 Oct 1989; ISSN 0149-1423
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
58 GEOSCIENCES
COASTAL REGIONS
HURRICANES
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
GEOMORPHOLOGY
ISLANDS
LOUISIANA
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
US DOI
DISASTERS
FEDERAL REGION VI
GEOLOGY
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NORTH AMERICA
STORMS
US ORGANIZATIONS
USA
020200* - Petroleum- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
580000 - Geosciences