The waters off of North Carolina’s barrier islands have been called a “graveyard of the Atlantic.” Countless ships have wrecked here, due to the area’s treacherous weather and currents and its expansive shoals. These shoals are, by definition, usually submerged. But occasionally parts of them can rise above sea level.
These natural-color images, acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite, show the shoal area off of Cape Point at Cape Hatteras National Seashore—the site of a newly exposed shoal nicknamed “Shelly Island.” The first image was captured in November 2016. When the second image was acquired in January 2017, waves were clearly breaking on the shallow region off the cape’s tip. The site of those breakers is where the island eventually formed, visible in the third image captured in July 2017. The new island measures about a mile long.
Captions and Image source: NASA / Earth Observatory
Excerpts;
Whatever mysterious forces crafted the new, crescent-shaped island at Cape Point is steadily gulping down the south end of Hatteras Island, spitting aside trees, power poles and a popular route for off-road vehicles…
Read Full Article, The Outer Banks Voice (11-01-2017)
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