Coastal Turbidity from Hurricane Irene
The intense wind and wave action kicked up by Hurricane Irene left its mark along the eastern seaboard. Sand and sediment eroded from the beaches and stirred up from the seafloor created a broad belt of turbid ocean water that appears a gorgeous shade of turquoise in this MODIS / Terra satellite image shot yesterday afternoon:
Zooming in to North Carolina’s Outer Banks, we can see some brownish plumes in the water that are probably sediment runoff from the coastal rivers that were deluged with rainfall from this storm:
Hopefully we’re not seeing a repeat of the widespread failure of hog-waste impoundments in this area that followed Hurricane Floyd back in 1999: