North Carolina Outer Banks, USA Coastal Foredune Sediment Cores - Grain Size Data & Core Log Descriptions

This repository includes sediment core data collected at seven sites along the northern Outer Banks, North Carolina, USA. From north to south, the sites include Pine Island, Corolla Reserve, Duck, the US Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility (FRF) North, FRF South, Southern Shores (i.e., Hillcrest Beach Access), and Nags Head (Bonnett St. Beach Access).

At each site, internal dune sedimentology and stratigraphy were characterized using sediment vibracores, each 1.5–2.2 m long, collected along a cross-shore transect from the dune toe to the dune heel. Coring locations were selected based on dune morphology to capture the stratigraphy of the dune toe, stoss slope, primary dune crest, lee slope, swale, and secondary dune crest, as applicable. Sediment core locations were documented using RTK-GPS and are included in the .kmz file.

All sediment cores were split, photographed, described for sedimentary structures, texture (as compared to standards), mineralogy, and color (Munsell, 2012). Sediment cores were described using the Modified Burmister System in 10-cm intervals, with additional intervals added as needed to capture stratigraphic units with thicknesses less than 10 cm but greater than 1 cm. Sediment core log descriptions are included in the NOAA_NCDunes_Vibracore_CoreLogs.xlsx data file.

Sediment size and shape were analyzed from oven-dried samples using a CAMSIZERX2Ⓡ. These data are included in the Dune_Grain_Size_camsizer_outputs.csv data file. Metrics reported for each sample include the following: Site, Core ID, Sample Number, Depth (cm below ground surface), Elevation (m, NAVD88), D2 (mm), D5 (mm), D10 (mm), D16 (mm), D25 (mm), D50 (mm), D75 (mm), D84 (mm), D90 (mm), D95 (mm), D98 (mm), average grain symmetry, average grain sphericity, average grain aspect ratio, percent pebble, percent granule, percent very coarse sand, percent coarse sand, percent medium sand, percent fine sand, percent very fine sand, and percent silt.

More details regarding these measurements can be found in the following manuscript:

Davis, E.H., Hein, C.J., Cohn, N., White, A.E., Zinnert, J.C. Differences in internal sedimentologic and biotic structure between natural, managed, and constructed coastal foredunes (in review).