60-42 Historical analysis of the beach and dunes from the northern part of Cabretta Island, Georgia, from 1800 to 2024

Session: 2YC and 4YCU Geoscience Student Research Poster Showcase

Presenting Author:

Authors:

Abstract:

Cabretta Island, located off the coast of Darien, Georgia, USA, has been instrumental for barrier island ecological and geological research since the 1960s. We sought to use interdisciplinary methods to examine the stability of the northern part of Cabretta’s beach and dunes. Results using Google Earth Pro images indicated the island has grown southward since the 1980s, consistent with the formation of Georgia’s barrier islands. In particular, dune and beach erosion of the northern part of Cabretta Island in 2008 revealed wreckage from a nineteenth century barquentine. To determine how long the dunes and beach had covered the wreck, we analyzed historical Georgia newspapers from 1780 to 1930, searching for shipwrecks to ascertain the ship’s identity; while there were numerous wrecks, we were unable to determine if any were the culprit. Nevertheless, burial of the wreck for nearly a century indicates that the northern beach and dunes underwent a period of stability since possibly the late 1800s. Historical hurricane records from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were examined for every storm occurring within 75 nautical miles of Cabretta Island between 1800 and 2024 by year and intensity (as determined on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale). Plots of the storms from 1800 to 2024 showed that the frequency and intensity of storms affecting Cabretta have decreased over the last two centuries, yet there is increasing activity since 1950, and recent upticks in the last two decades have likely contributed to the exposure of the Cabretta wreck in 2008. While Cabretta experienced more storms in the 1800s, the last two decades appear to be more detrimental to the northern part of the island.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-9587

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