Recent Changes in the Shoreline near Point Barrow, Alaska

Résumé

Contains a study of the shoreline, its erosion and factors causing it along a stretch of some 30 miles southwest and southeast of Point Barrow. The rapid changes in shoreline configuration, especially at "Nuwuk" the triangulation station at the tip of Point Barrow, and along the south shore of Elson Lagoon were found to be not the result of vigorous action of waves or currents, but due to the presence of ground ice along the shores, which when thawing during the brief summer is easily removed even by feeble sea action. Author's observations were made while at Arctic Research Laboratory at Barrow, engaged in a geothermal project. Bibliographical footnotes.