Sediment distribution patterns offshore of a renourished beach: Atlantic Beach and Fort Macon, North Carolina

Contour plots of sediment characteristics have been used to help delineate the regional distribution of native, renourishment, and relict sediments of f a renourished beach on the central North Carolina coast. Shell color, she ll polish, and sediment size (sorting) were found to be especially useful i ndicators of dispersal patterns of renourishment sands, which were characte rized by a high percentage of fine-grained sediment and a high percentage o f dull, pockmarked shell that was gray-to-black in color. Distribution patt erns show that longshore transport of renourishment sediment has been minor and little sand from a recent renourishment project was supplied to the ad jacent native beaches. However, possible cross-shore transport was identifi ed in storm layers (shell hash) in offshore sediment cores, and additional evidence was provided by the rippled scour depressions noted in a recent si de-scan sonar survey.