Smith Island on 60 Minutes
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Another climate change sky is falling hit piece pulling at your heartstrings:
But there is this:
Islands in the bay have been forming and disappearing since forever. The earth evolves like a living organism.
60 Minutes Spotlights Smith Island, Chesapeake Bay Sea Level Rise Challenges
The plight of Smith Island, Maryland attracted national attention this week on CBS’s 60 Minutes. Smith Island, nestled off the coast of Crisfield in Tangier Sound, is one of Maryland’s most unique cultural and ecological places.
www.cbf.org
But there is this:
Chesapeake Quarterly Volume 13 Numbers 2 & 3: Vanished Chesapeake Islands
Exclusivity defines the Maryland shoreline: large homes with gazebos and private beaches, quaint towns chockablock with designer handbags and chic dresses, restaurants serving $25 crab cake dinners. Less seen are the tight-knit African-American communities that have endured since slavery. They...
www.chesapeakequarterly.net
Islands in the bay have been forming and disappearing since forever. The earth evolves like a living organism.
Someone needs to tell them about at least a dozen seaside italian cities and towns that are beneath the waves since the Roman Empire, the islands that disappeared beneath the Caribbean a few thousand years ago and the area of the North Sea called Doggerland that disappeared about 5000BC.
Were the Neanderthals campfires and Mammoth farts responsible?
Were the Neanderthals campfires and Mammoth farts responsible?
jrt_ms1995
Well-Known Member
When combined together, maybe? Would have been a huge blast!
Prehistoric BLU-82.
LightRoasted
If I may ...
For your consideration ...
And yet nothing on the composition of the soil of these islands. Was it mostly a sandy soil? Most likely. Just the tidal movements alone can have enough effect over years to whittle away these island soils. Throw in many northeasters over the decades and centuries, some hurricanes, and not many loose soil islands will last. Especially if the tidal waters, while ebbing and receding, is sped up around a converging area.
I wonder when the story makers will focus on Calvert County getting narrower and narrower due to the Cliffs of Calvert erosion, constantly calving off? Which is the reason why near the entire length of the cliffs, the (navigational) water depth is only 2-3 feet deep out to a 1/4 mile, with some areas 3-9 feet deep out to near three quarters a mile off shore. At Dares Beach, pretty much the middle of the County, the water level goes from 2 to 9 feet out to 3/4 of a mile.
And as any waterman or fisherman knows, when over on the eastern side of the bay, the water is very shallow all over, such as in the Choptank, and the entire area east of buoy 76 on over the Honga River. Why? Because natural erosion of low lying lands. Taylor's Island averages only 1 to 6 feet above sea level. Maybe it'll be gone in another hundred years?
And yet nothing on the composition of the soil of these islands. Was it mostly a sandy soil? Most likely. Just the tidal movements alone can have enough effect over years to whittle away these island soils. Throw in many northeasters over the decades and centuries, some hurricanes, and not many loose soil islands will last. Especially if the tidal waters, while ebbing and receding, is sped up around a converging area.
I wonder when the story makers will focus on Calvert County getting narrower and narrower due to the Cliffs of Calvert erosion, constantly calving off? Which is the reason why near the entire length of the cliffs, the (navigational) water depth is only 2-3 feet deep out to a 1/4 mile, with some areas 3-9 feet deep out to near three quarters a mile off shore. At Dares Beach, pretty much the middle of the County, the water level goes from 2 to 9 feet out to 3/4 of a mile.
And as any waterman or fisherman knows, when over on the eastern side of the bay, the water is very shallow all over, such as in the Choptank, and the entire area east of buoy 76 on over the Honga River. Why? Because natural erosion of low lying lands. Taylor's Island averages only 1 to 6 feet above sea level. Maybe it'll be gone in another hundred years?
Grumpy
Well-Known Member
I read somewhere that the entire bay's average depth is like 5 feet..all pretty shallow except for the channel.
I didn't see anything so pulling at your heartstrings in the segment as much as I thought it was an interesting bit of history and the people that still live there. Erosion happens - don't know if that's climate change or just the natural order of things when you live near water.Another climate change sky is falling hit piece pulling at your heartstrings:
60 Minutes Spotlights Smith Island, Chesapeake Bay Sea Level Rise Challenges
The plight of Smith Island, Maryland attracted national attention this week on CBS’s 60 Minutes. Smith Island, nestled off the coast of Crisfield in Tangier Sound, is one of Maryland’s most unique cultural and ecological places.www.cbf.org
But there is this:
Chesapeake Quarterly Volume 13 Numbers 2 & 3: Vanished Chesapeake Islands
Exclusivity defines the Maryland shoreline: large homes with gazebos and private beaches, quaint towns chockablock with designer handbags and chic dresses, restaurants serving $25 crab cake dinners. Less seen are the tight-knit African-American communities that have endured since slavery. They...www.chesapeakequarterly.net
Islands in the bay have been forming and disappearing since forever. The earth evolves like a living organism.
Appreciated the Chesapeake Quarterly attachment. A lot of stuff in there that I didn't know about this area.
Imagine that... All this time I thought it was a political thing that Democrats can control with legislation....
Sarcasm and cynicism, two attributes that make a person tolerable to me!
3CATSAILOR
Well-Known Member
Left wing propaganda.
Did you even bother to watch it?
You know, this used to be a favorite subject of mine - how the bay had so many little muddy islands, that over time just became unlivable - or disappeared.
While others - like, well, Kent Island - they're not going anywhere. The most telling point is - erosion and storms. And this has been going on for centuries. We only noticed it, because we decided to put BUILDINGS on some of them. Otherwise, the map of islands in the bay is like Rohrshach's face in The Watchmen (for those unfamiliar, his mask looked like a Rohrshach test except - it ebbs, flows and changes - in a decidedly creepy fashion).
And in a lot of places in the world - this is normal. Last time we visited Assateague - down towards Chincoteague - one of our tour guides mentioned that the highly visible lighthouse once was on the southernmost tip of the island. The island has grown FIVE MILES southward since the lighthouse was started after the Civil War (the entire island is just 37 miles long).
But - yeah, ocean levels ARE rising. Very gradually. I've heard so much doom and gloom and yeah, if something ISN'T done, in a couple hundred years, some ocean nations will be gone.
The problem with the issue is its proponents have SO OVERSOLD the danger - that hasn't happened - people don't care. I get that if you see a family picnicking on railroad tracks, yes, you should SCREAM at them when the train is coming. But when the train is still twenty miles away, they're just not going to take you seriously.
While others - like, well, Kent Island - they're not going anywhere. The most telling point is - erosion and storms. And this has been going on for centuries. We only noticed it, because we decided to put BUILDINGS on some of them. Otherwise, the map of islands in the bay is like Rohrshach's face in The Watchmen (for those unfamiliar, his mask looked like a Rohrshach test except - it ebbs, flows and changes - in a decidedly creepy fashion).
And in a lot of places in the world - this is normal. Last time we visited Assateague - down towards Chincoteague - one of our tour guides mentioned that the highly visible lighthouse once was on the southernmost tip of the island. The island has grown FIVE MILES southward since the lighthouse was started after the Civil War (the entire island is just 37 miles long).
But - yeah, ocean levels ARE rising. Very gradually. I've heard so much doom and gloom and yeah, if something ISN'T done, in a couple hundred years, some ocean nations will be gone.
The problem with the issue is its proponents have SO OVERSOLD the danger - that hasn't happened - people don't care. I get that if you see a family picnicking on railroad tracks, yes, you should SCREAM at them when the train is coming. But when the train is still twenty miles away, they're just not going to take you seriously.
LightRoasted
If I may ...
For your consideration ...
Here's the actual 60 Minutes story that no one has posted yet. What BS the environmental woman is spewing, (beginning at 8:19). Says in one breath that water levels, only in the bay mind you, will increase 1-2 feet by 2050, and more that 4 feet by 2100. In the next breath she tells the real reason, low lying lands, erosion, and subsidence, aka sinking land, are the cause. Basically a BS fear porn the sky is falling story.
And someone tell me if those joists bolted to those pilings, supporting the new build house at the end of the clip, appear pressure treated? If they are not, someone is just asking for trouble.
BTW. And why not just bulkhead around the areas on the island that the community lives?
Hey @Gilligan! If Smith Island is gonna be washed away and disappear, or sink, soon, will yours be disappearing too? Since your island's land elevation is near the same as Smith Island. Where's your island's story on 60 Minutes anyway? Did you upset someone again to be ignored?
Here's the actual 60 Minutes story that no one has posted yet. What BS the environmental woman is spewing, (beginning at 8:19). Says in one breath that water levels, only in the bay mind you, will increase 1-2 feet by 2050, and more that 4 feet by 2100. In the next breath she tells the real reason, low lying lands, erosion, and subsidence, aka sinking land, are the cause. Basically a BS fear porn the sky is falling story.
And someone tell me if those joists bolted to those pilings, supporting the new build house at the end of the clip, appear pressure treated? If they are not, someone is just asking for trouble.
BTW. And why not just bulkhead around the areas on the island that the community lives?
Hey @Gilligan! If Smith Island is gonna be washed away and disappear, or sink, soon, will yours be disappearing too? Since your island's land elevation is near the same as Smith Island. Where's your island's story on 60 Minutes anyway? Did you upset someone again to be ignored?
Yes, a bolide strike at the mouth of what is the bay created most of the bay, drove water inland and created some really deep channels in the estuary. I think I read once that the Choptank is the deepest river in the East.
NorthBeachPerso
Honorary SMIB
What I haven't seen mentioned is how armoring the shoreline with stone just moves the erosion elsewhere and in many cases it goes around behind the seawall and back cuts it.
That's not even mentioning how the wave action off the rock seawall, by design, scours the immediate bottom of vegetation. We've seen that transition here in the Beach over the last forty years. We used to have literally thousands of Canvasbacks wintering off shore browsing on the SAV. Once we put in the rock armoring the numbers of those ducks steadily decreased because the SAVs got scoured away. Now we have Ruddys, Golden Eyes, Ringnecks and Buffleheads that feed on the clams.
If you've never eaten one of those last four, don't.
The rock armoring also keeps sand from being replenished at the beaches since the sand has nothing to grab hold of and accumulate.
That's not even mentioning how the wave action off the rock seawall, by design, scours the immediate bottom of vegetation. We've seen that transition here in the Beach over the last forty years. We used to have literally thousands of Canvasbacks wintering off shore browsing on the SAV. Once we put in the rock armoring the numbers of those ducks steadily decreased because the SAVs got scoured away. Now we have Ruddys, Golden Eyes, Ringnecks and Buffleheads that feed on the clams.
If you've never eaten one of those last four, don't.
The rock armoring also keeps sand from being replenished at the beaches since the sand has nothing to grab hold of and accumulate.
Seriously!
That aside, we were forced to intervene in our island shoreline after the native marsh was destroyed by a nutria invasion. We used a "living shoreline" method per DNR specifications, and it's done very well so far. The placement, size etc of stones is designed to allow shallow water ecosystem to remain active and it really is...marsh grass returned behind it and the minnow population up in the cuts is impressive.
We get a lot of geese in our cove (and on our pier) but other than lots of Dippers (Buffleheads) we seldom see the "good eatin'" ducks and have not for a long time now. We have two onshore and one offshore blind on/off our place, but the story is even worse at our "other island" upriver. On that one we have 8 "offshore or water's edge" blinds and an equal number onshore. We seldom see even the danged geese these days..much less any useful ducks. Cormorants now....we have them by the hundreds!
