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Jul 7, 2017 · CNN — North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras National Seashore has always been stunning, but now there’s a new wonder for visitors to explore: A new island has appeared in the ocean almost...
- Overview
- Not Exactly Paradise
- Birth of an Island
The sandy beach is littered with whale bones and ribs of old shipwrecks.
It appeared out of nowhere in April just off North Carolina's Outer Banks—a new land mass poking through the surf, a brand new Atlantic Ocean island.
Along this dynamic stretch of sea, where the cold, southbound Labrador Current churns and crashes into warmer Gulf Stream waters, it is not unusual for patches of ground to emerge and then quickly subside. These are, after all, some of North America's roughest waters, a shallow region of swirling tides, hidden shoals, and harsh winds known to sailors as the Graveyard of the Atlantic.
Yet even for this place, this new formation is of a scale rarely seen. The crescent-shaped spit is close to a mile long. At its widest point, this island reaches a football field or more across.
The appearance of this new island is drawing attention from coast to coast, though experts warn that it's surrounded by dangerous currents. Whale bones poke through its sands, along with the ribs of old shipwrecks. Beautiful seashells dot its beaches. The ripping seas separating it from the rest of Cape Hatteras National Seashore have brought in sand tiger sharks and "oceanic manta rays the size of car hoods," Couch says.
4:45
What If Your Home Was Slipping Into the Ocean?
"It's unusually large compared to what we've been seeing in recent decades," says Dave Hallac, superintendent of Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the Outer Banks Group. "But if you put this in geological perspective, it's nothing really."
In fact, for people who understand the transitory nature of this place, what happens next seems almost preordained. This land mass could be gone with the next storm, or this island could get bigger for awhile longer—but probably only for a short time.
Hallac, Couch, and several other experts agree: the new landmass some have taken to calling Shelly Island will almost certainly be wiped out within the year. (The island was named by a young boy after the many shells visible there.)
When people first started noticing the sandy ground rising through the water across the surf from Cape Point, authorities didn't pay much heed, says Mark Dowdle, deputy superintendent of Cape Hatteras. That's just the way things here work.
"It's just part of the natural process," Dowdle says. "I've seen parts of the Outer Banks erode for months, only to then fill back in again."
In some areas, storms and rising seas tend to eat away at beaches. In others, they actually add sand. (Watch a volcano form a new island.)
"You get lots of energy, lots of storms, lots of turmoil, lots of complex and dynamic currents," says Riggs. "The land to the north is skinny, skinny skinny, so skinny you can throw a baseball across it. To the south are some of the few beaches in North Carolina that're actually growing."
All this ferocious change comes to a head near Cape Point, which is just 10 miles or so from the edge of the continental shelf and the place where the Labrador and Gulf Stream meet. As a result, there's never really any telling what sea here will do to land. (See surreal photos of a landscape formed by megafloods.)
In the 1950s, for example, a Cape Point campground was separated from the water by little more than a sand dune. Today those some campsites are a good quarter mile from the sea.
- 5 min
Jun 28, 2017 · A new island about a mile long and 300 yards wide has appeared off the tip of Cape Point in Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The strong currents and tides in the Outer Banks create and...
Jun 28, 2017 · A new island has appeared off the coast of North Carolina's Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and unfortunately for locals, word is spreading -- fast. The mile-long sandbar, dubbed...
- CBS News
- 1 min
Jun 30, 2017 · A new island suddenly emerged from the sea just off the coast of North Carolina — but officials warn that the spit of land is too dangerous for humans to explore. The new sandbar...
Jul 21, 2017 · HATTERAS, N.C. — Over the course of seven months, a NASA satellite watched as sediment accumulated off the coast of Cape Point at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. A new island emerged...
Jul 4, 2017 · This mysterious island off the coast of North Carolina has people across the country marveling at its sudden appearance. It’s not unusual for sandbars to rise and fall at the Outer Banks of Cape Point off of Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina.
