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Welcome
RipRocks.net
is dedicated to all things coastal, especially my own
research. This is the personal web site of Rip Kirby,
graduate student and teaching assistant at the
USF
Department of Geology.
If you have a link, a conference, or idea you would like to
publicize, please send it along. I will be happy to help
with the publicity.
Currently, my research
is conducted as part of my graduate studies program at the
University
of South Florida.
Specifically, I work in the Coastal
Research Laboratory
run by Dr. Ping Wang, the CRL Director.
Because of the increased number of large storms that have
rolled through the Gulf of Mexico since August 2004,
my
research is
focused on the NW Florida panhandle. Stretching from St
George Island to the Florida-Alabama border, the regional
focus of my research area centers on post-storm event
recovery of the barrier islands and coastal
shoreline.
In April 2010, a disaster of epic proportions brought toxic crude oil treated with dispersant to the shores of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Since that accident occurred, my coastal research has been focused on cleaning up the coastline and documenting the damage done by the weathered crude oil left behind by the clean up effort. Despite claims that the coast is clear of toxic tar balls, the evidence suggests otherwise. Click HERE to see the latest video of tar product contamination at Gulf Shores, AL on July 17, 2012  
What's
New
The first paper
was accepted for publishing by the Journal
of Coastal Research
in December 2004. It was titled Morphological and
Sedimentological Impacts of Hurricane Ivan and Immediate
Post-storm Beach Recovery along the Northwestern Florida
Barrier-island Coasts and discussed the 90 day recovery
period following Hurricane Ivan. The final revision was
completed in May 2005 and the paper should appear in the
next publication cycle. There will be at least two follow-on
papers that expand on the original paper and discuss the
mechanisms for the longshore erosion phenomenon documented
in the JCR paper and the shoreline geomorphology that
contributed to higher than normal damage from smaller storms
in the post-Ivan period. Links to these papers will be
available on this site.
Barrier Island Geomorphology
Santa Rosa Island
(SRI) in NW Florida is one of the longest barrier islands in
the United States. It stretches from the East Pass at
Destin, Florida to the entrance to Escambia Bay at
Pensacola. Several of the study sites for research conducted
by the Coastal Research Lab are located on SRI. A
presentation on the impact of Hurricane Ivan on the
morphology of the NWF panhandle coast was given at the
February 2005 SE GSA conference held in Biloxi, MS. Click
HERE
to review this presentation.
Coastal Protection
The NW Florida
panhandle coastline is in transgression. Erosion from
multiple storm events including Hurricanes Ivan, Frances,
and Jeanne in the 2004 season along with Tropical Storms
Arlene and Cindy and Hurricane Dennis in the 2005 season
have created a coastline that is deemed critically eroded by
the FEMA and the State of Florida. As such, emergency
measures to protect this vulnerable coastline are in
progress. However, as this is being written, Hurricane
Katrina is growing in size and intensity in the Gulf of
Mexico. Erosive wave action from this large storm will
impact the panhandle even if Katrina makes landfall in
Lousiana or Mississippi.
One option for protecting this severely eroded coastline is
the concept of buried structure. A short information paper
on this concept is being developed by the Coastal Research
Laboratory. The current version is available for
download
as a PDF file. As this work-in-progress is updated, the
latest version will be placed online.
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