The effects of Holocene barrier-island evolution on water-table elevations, Hatteras Island, North Carolina, USA |
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| Authors: | William P Anderson Jr David G Evans Stephen W Snyder |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Geography/Geology, Illinois State University, Campus Box 4400, Normal, Illinois 61790-4400, USA Fax: +1-309-4385310 e-mail: wpander@ilstu.edu, US;(2) Geology Department, California State University, Sacramento, 6000 J Street, Sacramento, California 95819-6043, USA, US;(3) Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 8208, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8208, USA, US |
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| Abstract: | On Hatteras Island, North Carolina, USA, complex stratigraphy results from surficial sediments being superimposed on an inherited
Pleistocene platform. Numerical simulations used to simulate water-table profiles on the island illustrate the influence that
the complex stratigraphy has on water-table elevations. Field data consist of water-table profiles collected from a cross-island
transect of wells. These profiles show unusually high water-table elevations in the south-central portion of Hatteras Island.
Geophysical data are used to constrain the subsurface stratigraphy. Simple analytical solutions to the groundwater flow equation
using laterally varying recharge rates cannot match mean water-table profiles. More complex numerical simulations, which do
match the profiles, indicate that the elevated water levels result from a low-permeability unit that extends several kilometers
along the longitudinal axis of the island. Island geomorphology and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data suggest that this
unit is a former interdunal wetland that has been buried by a series of parabolic dunes.
Received, September 1999 / Revised, March 2000 / Accepted, March 2000 |
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| Keywords: | barrier-island hydrogeology numerical modeling USA conceptual models coastal aquifers |
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