Introduction
The North Carolina coastline is a very large and complex system that consists of about 560 km of ocean coast, 23 inlets, over 8,000 km of estuarine shore, with over 8,000 sq km of brackish-water estuaries.
North Carolina receives about 1,200 mm of rainfall throughout the year, resulting in a subtropical climate dominated by heavy vegetation. One drainage basin (Roanoke River) flows off the front side of the Appalachian Mountains, four others (Chowan, Tar, Neuse, and Cape Fear rivers) originate within the Piedmont Province, while six others (North, Pasquotank, Perquimins, Alligator, White Oak, and Waccamaw rivers) are small, black-water streams that originate within the Coastal Plain.
The coastal system forms the interface between the Atlantic Ocean and a wide coastal plain composed of Cretaceous through Holocene sediments. The coastal plain has been formed on the trailing edge of the North American plate, a generally stable tectonic setting with only minor tectonic uplift...
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References
Riggs SR (2001) Shoreline erosion in North Carolina Estuaries. North Carolina Sea Grant College Program, Raleigh, Publication UNC-SG-O1–11, 69p
Riggs SR, Ames DV (2003) Drowning the North Carolina Coast: Sea-Level Rise and Estuarine Dynamics. North Carolina Sea Grant College Program, Raleigh. Publication No. UNC-SG-03-04, 152p
Riggs SR, York LL, Wehmiller JF, Snyder SW (1992) Depositional patterns resulting from high-frequency Quaternary sea-level fluctuations in northeastern North Carolina. In: Fletcher CH, Wehmiller JF (eds) Quaternary coasts of the United States: marine and lacustrine systems: SEPM (Society of Sedimentary Geology). Special Publication 48:141–153
Riggs SR, Cleary WJ, Snyder SW (1995) Influence of inherited geologic framework on barrier shoreface morphology and dynamics. Marine Geol 126:213–234
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Riggs, S.R. (2010). North Carolina. In: Bird, E.C.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of the World's Coastal Landforms. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8639-7_13
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