Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
Yearly handling of nearly seven billion dollars worth of goods at the Port of Wilmington makes North Carolina the tenth largest exporting state in the nation (ERDCb, 2002). Studies by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and North Carolina State Ports Authority indicate that deepening the shipping channel to Wilmington by four feet to an average depth of 42 feet is essential to keeping current business and attracting new customers as shipping lines construct larger ships, increasing efficiency and profitability (NC-96, 2000; ERDC-b, 2002). The navigation improvements under construction for the Wilmington Harbor Project will both deepen and realign the ocean bar channel, starting in August 2000 and scheduled for completion in March 2005 (NC-96, 2000; ERDC-b, 2002). The new channel is oriented more southerly than the existing channel, which extends southwest through the Baldhead Shoal outer reach (Figure 1). Suitable dredged sediments from channel deepening and maintenance will be placed on adjacent beaches and observed through long-term monitoring programs (ERDC-b, 2002). An understanding of the processes and associated response of currents and sediments across the coastal system is crucial for wise management of United States’ coastline and shelf waters and for developing a useful model of sediment transport (McNinch and Leuttich, 2000; ERDC, 2002). Changes in sedimentation patterns in an ebb tide delta channel could possibly affect the processes of sediment transport across the larger coastal system. Unfortunately, as McNinch and Wells (1999) note, North Carolina’s coastal littoral sediment budget is largely unknown. In this study, I examine the bathymetry and morphology of the ebb tide delta extending seaward from the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Delineation of regional spatial currents, in addition to ebb tide delta bathymetry and morphology, help me to determine possible changes in sediment deposition patterns associated with the old and new channels since the dredging of the new channel.
Date Awarded
2003
Department
Geology
Advisor 1
Jesse E. McNinch
Advisor 2
Heather MacDonald
Recommended Citation
Neubaurer, Joel, "Sedimentation pattern changes subsequent to channel dredging in an ebb tide delta, Cape Fear River, North Carolina" (2003). Geology Senior Theses. William & Mary. Paper 115.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/geologyseniors/115
