Date of Award
Summer 8-2011
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Program
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Department
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Major Professor
Kulp, Mark Alan
Second Advisor
Georgiou, Ioannis T.
Third Advisor
Miner, Michael D.
Abstract
Many recent studies have sought to understand the response of barrier islands and their attendant marshes to sea level rise. The Mississippi River delta plain, specifically the Chandeleur Islands and associated interior wetlands in eastern Louisiana, serves as an excellent natural laboratory for studying these responses. This region is presently undergoing the highest rates of shoreline erosion (> 15 m yr -1) in North America as wetlands are converted to open water in a regime of subsidence-driven rapid relative sea-level rise (~1 cm yr-1). Three conceptual models were developed based on the geomorphic relationships observed in the marsh that describe and predict shoreline processes as the Chandeleur Islands continue to disintegrate and submerge. These models indicate that shells are the dominant shoreline-forming material in the marsh due to the lack of sand-rich strata in the subsurface of the marsh.
Recommended Citation
Ellison, Mary, "Subsurface controls on mainland marsh shoreline response during barrier island transgressive submergence" (2011). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 458.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/458
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.