#LAND BRIDGE TO BAR ISLAND FULL#
Barrier beaches also protect the mainland from the full force of ocean wind and wave energy.
These beaches are not only attractive to human settlers and tourists they promote the development of critical marsh and wetland habitats. Some of the best-known barrier systems include Padre Island in Texas, the Outer Banks of North Carolina and Virginia, the south shore of Long Island, New York, and the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. In the United States, barrier spits and beaches line up along nearly a quarter of the coast, mostly facing the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Sometimes they are islands and other times they are connected to land at one end, a feature dubbed a “spit.” Scientists estimate that there are more than 2,100 barrier islands in the world fronting nearly 10 percent of continental shorelines. These strips of land are usually long and narrow and run parallel to the mainland. The prime example of beach evolution is the coastal barrier. When you look across decades and centuries, you see the landscape evolving on a wider scale, but still one that humans can experience. Spend a year, and you see dunes grow, shrink, and migrate. Spend a week, and you see sandbars and wading pools arise and disappear.
Spend a day on the beach and you see the micro scale - in the grains of sand blown by winds, tumbled by the surf, or carried out in your shoes.
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