Project Summary

In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy impacted Fire Island, New York (N.Y.), part of a barrier island chain along the south shore of Long Island, N.Y. (fig. 1). The storm caused substantial changes to the subaerial beach, altered the shoreface morphology (Hapke and others, 2013), and breached the barrier island within the Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness (fig. 1). To characterize the post-Hurricane Sandy morphologic evolution of the wilderness breach (fig. 2), scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) have conducted a bathymetric surveys of Fire Island including a June 2013 survey of the wilderness breach (Brownell and others, 2015). This survey, which took place June 10–20, 2014 (USGS Field Activity Number 2014-303-FA), includes the bathymetry of the Fire Island shoreface and the wilderness breach (fig. 2). The primary objective of the survey was to map the morphology of the nearshore shoreface and the wilderness breach as part of the USGS Hurricane Sandy Supplemental Project GS2-2B. Further information can be found at http://www.usgs.gov/hurricane/sandy/#research_themes.html!research_theme_understanding_change.html.

Figure 1. Regional map of Fire Island, N.Y., along the southern coast of Long Island, N.Y. The study area extends from the eastern boundary of Robert Moses State Park to the Otis Pike Fire Island High Dunes Wilderness, just east of the wilderness breach. Global Positioning System (GPS) reference base stations located at benchmarks REST and U374 are also marked. [Click to enlarge]

Figure 2. Eastern shore of the Fire Island wilderness breach (foreground) looking northwest showing the breach channel, the western shore (left), and Great South Bay (background). [Click to enlarge]