Sedimentary evidence of intense hurricane strikes from New Jersey

Nine Vibracores from the backbarrier marsh at Whale Beach, New Jersey, reveal three large-scale overwash deposits associated with historic and prehistoric storms. The uppermost and smallest overwash fan was deposited in the Ash Wednesday northeaster of March 5-8, 1962. A second more substantial over...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology (Boulder) 2001-07, Vol.29 (7), p.615-618
Main Authors: Donnelly, Jeffrey P, Roll, Stuart, Wengren, Micah, Butler, Jessica, Lederer, Richard, Webb, III
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
absolute age
aerial photography
alkali metals
Angiospermae
Atlantic Coastal Plain
barrier beaches
Beaches
biostratigraphy
Brackish
C-14
Cape May County New Jersey
carbon
Cenozoic
cesium
cores
Cs-137
dates
Geochronology
geologic hazards
Geology
Gramineae
history
Holocene
Hurricanes
isotopes
landform evolution
Marine
marshes
metals
miospores
mires
modern
Monocotyledoneae
New Jersey
paludal environment
palynomorphs
Plantae
pollen
pollen analysis
prediction
Quaternary
Quaternary geology
radioactive isotopes
remote sensing
sediment transport
sediments
shore features
shorelines
Spartina
Spartina alterniflora
Spermatophyta
storms
terrestrial environment
United States
upper Holocene
Wetlands
Whale Beach
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Nine Vibracores from the backbarrier marsh at Whale Beach, New Jersey, reveal three large-scale overwash deposits associated with historic and prehistoric storms. The uppermost and smallest overwash fan was deposited in the Ash Wednesday northeaster of March 5-8, 1962. A second more substantial overwash fan between 100 and 35 cm depth dates to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. This fan was most likely deposited during the 1821 hurricane, the only intense hurricane to make landfall in New Jersey in the past 350 yr. A third, larger overwash fan between 200 and 300 cm depth was deposited between A.D. 1278 and 1438 and is likely the result of a prehistoric intense hurricane strike. The combination of historical and stratigraphic evidence indicates that two intense hurricanes (winds >50 m s-1) have likely made landfall on the southern New Jersey coast in the past 700 yr, resulting in an annual landfall probability of 0.3%.
ISSN:0091-7613
1943-2682
DOI:10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0615:SEOIHS>2.0.CO;2