sea level on florida east coast in 1700s

keegah

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Mar 26, 2007
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Re: sea level on florida east coast in 1700's

It comes and goes over the years. Right now Id have to say that the beaches are a few hundred yards out from what they were in the 1700's in some places.

In other places, the beaches are a few hundred yards in, as natural erosion has wore down stuff and made it beach now.

I do a lot of looking around Hugenout (sp) park, and remember very well a few years ago when francis came through it basically terraformed the whole place. leveled it pretty nicely it did. Now a few years later it is built up again with dunes, etc etc.

Other places I go, recently about 6 foot of beach was cut away from a good storm system that passed through, literally there was like someone took a bulldozer and dug the sand away. Found a lot of stuff then, and while I never did believe all the stories Id read about people walking down the beach and find coins literally laying on top of the sand, that day made a believer out of me.

To say the beach is overall receeded or increased, I don't think anyone can honestly make a blanket statement as so many things can affect it, each beach is it's own little beastie to tackle.

Keep an eye on your spot of interest and whenever a good storm passes through, go take a look and see if it changed for the better for you.

Aaron
 

Re: sea level on florida east coast in 1700's

Thank you for your reply. What i'm trying to find out is :have sea levels increased or decreased since the 1700's?thanks, keegah
 

Re: sea level on florida east coast in 1700's

keegah said:
Thank you for your reply. What i'm trying to find out is :have sea levels increased or decreased since the 1700's?thanks, keegah
I would say that sea levels have increased but only recently and probably only several inches.

Although some beaches are naturally gaining sand, most of the beaches are eroding and sea levels are rising. That is why we have beach renourishment. The sand put on the beach today will end up back in the water tommorrow.
 

Re: sea level on florida east coast in 1700's

The sea level in the Florida Keys has risen about 3 feet since the 1700's. I once dug a hole on one of the small islands in the keys, and encountered a layer of compressed organic material down about three feet. Under this layer of material, down another two feet, I found a Spanish olive jar (circa mid-1700"s). I then tested other areas, and found the same layer of organics at the same depth. Also, we found evidence of a 1733 salvage camp on Matecumbe that was under water now.
 

Re: sea level on florida east coast in 1700's

So it would be safe to assume that sea levels on the east coast of florida were 3' lower during the early spanish times 1500's-1750's?Would an organization like NOAA have info on this? thanks,keegah
 

Re: sea level on florida east coast in 1700's

Doing a google search yields multiple answers to this. It appears sea level has risen a bit but not significantly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise

From wikipedia, it states that sea level has risen a tiny bit, but then again, with the global warming nutjobs cooking data here and there, it's hard to say for sure which reports are valid and which have been gathered in ways specifically to serve a cause. This entry however seems to cover about every thing possible on sea level changes and why.

The interesting thing though is that, how has this affected where we want to look? Sea level may go up and down but sand also gets washed in and out with storms so while sea level might have indeed risen, the beach might be several hundred feet out from 200 300 years ago due to sand deposition. What this will mean for us is, a sea level rise implies that what we want to see should be under water, but instead is 1/4 mile inland.

Aaron
 

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