HISTORY OF OUTER BANKS BY

IN THE BEGINNING

• Long string of narrow barrier islands off the coast
• of North Carolina and a small portion of Virginia,
• beginning in the southeastern corner of Virginia Beach
• on the east coast of the United States.

THE FORMATION

• The formation of barrier islands is complex and
• not completely understood. The current theory
• is that barrier islands were formed
• about 18,000 years ago when the last Ice Age ended.

FORMATION

• As the glaciers melted and receded, the sea levels began
• to rise, and flooded areas behind the beach ridges at that time.
• The rising waters carried sediments from those
• beach ridges and deposited them along shallow areas
• just off the new coast lines.

THE FORMATION

• Waves and currents continued to bring in sediments the
• Waves and currents continued to bring in sediments that
• rivers washed sediments from the mainland that settled
• behind the islands and helped build them up.

THE END