A Vanishing Shoreline

A Vanishing Shoreline. . , It was incredible, the water just smashed through like the dune wasn't even substantial. It was like a wall of water you could see even in dim light. , Local resident Andy Shot watched the breach occur after sunset. , [quoted in Boston Globe article], On Halloween day of 1991 a North Atlantic hurricane cut a 100-foot wide opening in the narrow barrier dune at Ballston Beach. Tons of seawater surged into the freshwater marshes of the upper Pamet River, eventually reaching Route 6, and briefly turning the end of Cape Cod into an island., This was not a unique event. In the past century, several such overwashes have occurred. Each time the barrier dune has rebuilt itself. Today, sand fencing and use of established footpaths to the beach help stabilize the dune., Where is the sand going? , Most of the sediment is moving northward, building up the Provincetown hook, and offshore bars. The tip of Cape Cod is actually growing!, The sea...plays with land holding a sand bar in its mouth awhile before it swallows it, as a cat plays with a mouse... noted Henry David Thoreau when he walked these beaches in the mid 1800s., To follow in Thoreau's footsteps today, you would be walking on water several hundred feet out at sea. Cape Cod's outer beach is eroding at a long-term average rate of 2.6 feet per year.