Geologic Evidence of Hurricane Rita Recovered from Texas Point, TX

Abstract

Hurricane Rita made landfall at the Texas/Louisiana border on 24 September 2005 as a category 3 hurricane. In November 2006, four cores were recovered along a north-south transect from the marsh at Texas Point, TX. Loss-on-ignition and grain size analysis identified the inorganic storm layer (consisting of fine-grained sands and silts) deposited as a result of this event. Results show that the sediment pushed inland by the 3 m storm surge was unevenly distributed along the transect. Areas of open water (i.e. small lakes) along the transect provide a different depositional environment than the vegetated marsh surface and affect the characteristics of the storm layer, and thus potentially the interpretation of the hurricane history. This variability suggests that great caution is required when reconstructing past hurricane activity in marsh environments, especially when storm layer thickness is being used for the estimation of past hurricane strength.