fsl3626
Eco Photo 3
The picture above was taken on February 23, 2018 at the south end of Wrightsville Beach in Wilmington North Carolina. This picture displays a jetty on the Wrightsville Beach side of the Masonboro Inlet. A jetty is a manmade structure that was constructed to protect beaches and harbors from waves and serves to influence currents (Lewis 2012). Notice how the water to the right side of the jetty is much calmer than that to the left. What’s also interesting about this jetty is that the rock wall doesn’t begin for a few hundred feet. Instead this area has a wood/metal bulkhead which spans the gap and is referred to as a Weir Jetty (Lewis 2012). This Weir Jetty was designed to allow sand to pass over the jetty and be deposited into the basin. This is unlike the other side of the Masonboro Inlet which is a straight solid rock wall spanning from the sound all the way to the inlet (Lewis 2012). Without this gap the sand would have been kept from moving into the inlet, eventually causing a build-up on one side of the jetty causing the other to corrode. The deposited basin also has other practical uses that make it an asset to the city of Wilmington. The deposits are dredged and are then used to supply nutrients and build up the northern end of the island which is slowly being eroded (Ocean Science n.d.). Therefore, these jetties make up a crucial part in keeping the island and beaches maintained.
Sources:
www.oceanscience.net/inletsonline/usa/doc_new/Masonboro_I...
www.myreporter.com/2012/09/why-does-the-jetty-at-the-sout...
Eco Photo 3
The picture above was taken on February 23, 2018 at the south end of Wrightsville Beach in Wilmington North Carolina. This picture displays a jetty on the Wrightsville Beach side of the Masonboro Inlet. A jetty is a manmade structure that was constructed to protect beaches and harbors from waves and serves to influence currents (Lewis 2012). Notice how the water to the right side of the jetty is much calmer than that to the left. What’s also interesting about this jetty is that the rock wall doesn’t begin for a few hundred feet. Instead this area has a wood/metal bulkhead which spans the gap and is referred to as a Weir Jetty (Lewis 2012). This Weir Jetty was designed to allow sand to pass over the jetty and be deposited into the basin. This is unlike the other side of the Masonboro Inlet which is a straight solid rock wall spanning from the sound all the way to the inlet (Lewis 2012). Without this gap the sand would have been kept from moving into the inlet, eventually causing a build-up on one side of the jetty causing the other to corrode. The deposited basin also has other practical uses that make it an asset to the city of Wilmington. The deposits are dredged and are then used to supply nutrients and build up the northern end of the island which is slowly being eroded (Ocean Science n.d.). Therefore, these jetties make up a crucial part in keeping the island and beaches maintained.
Sources:
www.oceanscience.net/inletsonline/usa/doc_new/Masonboro_I...
www.myreporter.com/2012/09/why-does-the-jetty-at-the-sout...