The Science of North Beach

For many years, the Nauset Barrier Beach system has been the subject of scientific study. Because it has been well-documented, the cycle of beach growth, breaching and regrowth represents the perfect laboratory to study coastal processes.

For a lay explanation of the Nauset barrier beach cycle, read this excerpt from "Breakthrough: The Story of Chatham's North Beach."

In 1978, Dr. Graham Giese [left] wrote one of the most definitive reports on the system, "The Barrier Beaches of Chatham, Massachusetts," for the town's conservation commission. The report synthesized previous research and provided a roadmap to the approximately 150-year cycle. The report was reprinted in the Cape Cod Chronicle in 1987, following the breakthrough in the beach on Jan. 2 of that year, and is made available here for the first time online. Download a PDF of "The Barrier Beaches of Chatham, Massachusetts."

Dr. Giese, currently director of the land and sea interaction program at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, is currently working on another study of the system along with Mark Adams of the Cape Cod National Seashore and Chatham Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon. No data from that study is available at this time.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has done several study of the system and Chatham Harbor, beginning shortly after the 1987 break. That study focused on the efficacy of dredging in Aunt Lydia's Cove in order to assist the town's commercial fishing fleet. The Corps dredges the Cove every June with the hopper dredge Currituck. The agency is currently involved in a hydrodynamic study of the new inlet and Pleasant Bay.

"Coastal Erosion on Cape Cod: Some Questions and Answers" by USGS geologist Robert Oldale provides an overview of North Beach erosion.

Other data and studies will be posted as they become available.