Experts Says US Barrier Islands Could Disappear

A dramatic rise of sea levels by the end of the century could wipe out some of America’s barrier islands off its eastern and southern coasts, researchers said on Tuesday.

“Barrier islands may really look quite different in the future for our children’s children,” Laura Moore of Oberlin College’s geology department told the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. “Barrier islands may become vulnerable to threshold collapse.”

Narrow barrier islands ring much of the East and Gulf Coasts of the United States, protecting the mainland from storms, providing refuge to wildlife and offering vacation possibilities to beach lovers.

Reuters