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Home | Photo Tours | Inflight photos, page 1 |
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Page 2: Inflight photos of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi, taken during NGOM meeting in New Orleans, January 24 - 26, 2007
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| Photography and Captions - Jim Flocks (USGS) |
| Select image to view enlargement |
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Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana. Two years after Hurricane Katrina, the islands show minimal recovery since the storm impacted this area: the beach is still severely eroded, open breaches are common, and vegetation is sparse.
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The Caenarvon diversion on the east bank of the Mississippi River near St. Bernard and Plaqumines Parish. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) cut culverts into the levee as an experimental project to divert fresh water and its accompanying nutrients and sediments to the coastal bays and marshes of Breton Sound. Perhaps the first of many similar diversions to renourish the depleted wetlands of the Mississippi Delta Plain, which experience severe shoreline loss, subsidence, and storm-related damage while receiving little or no replenishing material from the leveed river system. |
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Damage to the wetlands in the wake of Hurricane Katrina include the creation of ‘marsh balls’ (clumps of vegetation ranging in size from a basketball to a house). It is believed that storm surge overwhelmed the shallow root system of the marsh grass and rolled up the flotant marsh like a carpet. Similar features were observed in the wetlands of Terrebone Parish following Hurricane Andrew.
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(This image and next image) Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana. Aerial views from the Chandeleur Sound, looking toward the Gulf of Mexico. Slight linear discolorations offshore represent offshore sand bars that protect the islands from day to day wave action and most storms. The storm waves and surge from Hurricane Katrina wiped out these bars, severely eroded the shoreface and created numerous breaches within the barrier island chain. However, submerged aquatic vegetation can still be observed as dark patterns in the surrounding water, and remains an important food source for migratory birds and spawning ground for fisheries. |
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(See caption above) |
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Sand shoals offshore are seen through the clear waters on the Gulf side of the Chandeleur Islands. Although several shore parallel sand bars are commonly seen along the shoreline of these islands, the swirling sands seen in the photo reflect the chaos that ensued in the wake of Katrina’s destruction. Presently, tidal currents and waves are restructuring these sand deposits, and the fate of the islands is dependant on whether these shoals reattach to the beach and form protective offshore bars, or are eroded from the shoreface and lost from the system
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URL of this page is: http://ngom.usgs.gov/phototours/inflight012407/inflight2.html