DATE: Wednesday, October 29, 1997           TAG: 9710290656

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: DUCK                              LENGTH:   91 lines

SHORELINE CHANGES DAILY, 6-WEEK STUDY AFTER STORM SHOWS

Braving blowing sand and frigid waves, searing sun and northeast winds, Jeff List rode 45 miles along the ocean every day for the past six weeks.

Sitting atop a six-wheeled, open-air, all-terrain vehicle, he skirted the surf from Corolla through Oregon Inlet to study - and map - daily changes in the shoreline.

List expected to see some sand shift as storms blew across the barrier islands.

But he didn't dream that the beach would regenerate itself soon after a storm earlier this month eroded parts of the shore.

``In certain spots, there was massive erosion after our recent northeaster. Up to 60 feet of beach washed away in some places,'' said List, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey in Woods Hole, Mass., who used satellites to measure shoreline changes. ``But during the week following that storm, everywhere there was serious erosion, there was serious accretion in the same spot. The bad places came right back. The good spots didn't seem to change.

``That was very surprising,'' List said Monday from the Army Corps of Engineers' research pier in Duck, N.C. ``It says the system is a lot less chaotic than you'd think. Sand is not just moving around randomly out there.''

One of 200 scientists and students studying the shoreline along the northern Outer Banks, List is part of a four-month project based at the Corps' research facility. Dubbed ``SandyDuck,'' the study is the largest near-shore coastal field experiment ever conducted. Work began in late June and is wrapping up this week as researchers start to dismantle more than 400 sensors, 75 underwater microphones and 150 cables connecting monitoring equipment to on-shore computers.

The $15 million project is sponsored by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Office of Naval Research and the U.S. Geological Survey. Researchers spent seven years planning the experiments and will need at least three more years to collect and process all the data. Scientists from as far away asCanada and Great Britain participated in the project.

Results from the studies will help researchers understand how sand and sandbars move, where waves break and why, which parts of the beach are more prone to erosion - and how to conduct naval warfare better.

``The more we look at near-shore processes of the ocean, the more questions we raise,'' said Bill Birkemeier, who heads the Corps' Duck research pier. ``We're using new tools and technology to find out all we can about waves, wind and water movement - and how they all relate. We're interested in all aspects of what drives changes in the shoreline.''

Scientists based at the 1,840-foot oceanfront pier are working in 12 trailers trucked in for the project. Using 115 computers and equipment ranging from satellites circling miles above the earth's atmosphere to sensors secured 70 feet below the ocean's surface, the researchers are conducting 30 separate experiments. Much of the equipment was tested three years ago during a warm-up exercise dubbed ``Duck 94.''

``We're using several new acoustic instruments that didn't even exist then. And we're studying everything from on-shore processes to changes occurring three miles out in the ocean,'' Birkemeier said. ``Eventually, we want to be able to say, `Here's what will happen when a hurricane comes by.' ''

Other applications of the intensive research might allow scientists to predict results of a new inlet opening, jetties being built at Oregon Inlet, or another groin being constructed in front of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Models based on the studies could show what will happen if someone builds a dune along beachfront property - or allows one to erode away. Work might even aid long-term predictions of oceanfront erosion - showing people what property is safe to buy and which beach areas would be a bad investment.

Thomas Kinder, who works in the Office of Naval Research, said SandyDuck studies also will help the military.

``We need to understand the environment of beach areas so our special forces teams, like Navy SEALS, can learn how to use rough conditions to conceal themselves - and figure out which areas of the shore to avoid,'' Kinder said. ``This work will help us plan amphibious warfare, select beaches for landing ships and see how storms shape the coastline. Commanders deploying troops have to consider the environment as well as military strategies.''

Scientists are studying everything from single grains of sand swirling in the sea to stretches of beach more than 45 miles long. They're listening to waves under the water and taking aerial photographs of shifting shorelines. And they're using side-scan sonar to paint pictures of the ocean's floor as it ripples, moves and changes with the tides.

``These studies are profoundly important and will influence work over the long term, across a broad spectrum of implications,'' Kinder said. ``Some of the things we're doing here have almost immediate applications. Others, we can't even imagine yet.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot

The CRAB, or Coast Research Amphibious Buggy, above, rolls ashore

with data gathered in the SandyDuck experiment at the Army Corps of

Engineers Field Research Facility in Duck on Tuesday. At right,

Hilary Stockdon, 26, uses Argo, a research vehicle, to observe the

shoreline. Scientists cruise from Corolla to the Oregon Inlet to

monitor erosion.

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