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Overview
From the Carolina Outer Banks to New York's Fire Island, from Iceland to the Netherlands and Colombia to Vietnam, barrier islands protect much of the world's coastlines from the ravages of the sea. Although these islands are vastly different in many ways, they also share many common features. Most dramatic among these is their dynamism—barrier islands are in almost constant motion, their advances and retreats powerful testimony to the force and beauty of nature—and their vulnerability in the face of a different kind of force, commercial and residential development.
This first-of-its-kind survey of barrier islands around the globe had its genesis in 1993, when geologist Orrin Pilkey met artist Mary Edna Fraser at Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina. They soon realized they shared a passion for the barriers, one heightened by the many threats the islands face from development and global warming. These fragile and irreplaceable jewels, Pilkey and Fraser determined, needed to be better understood, and, as important, to be seen in a new way, if they were to be saved.
Every bit as dynamic as the islands they depict, Mary Edna Fraser's spectacular original batik artwork (silk cloth colored by hand using a modern variation of an ancient dyeing technique) has been exhibited in both science and art museums. Combined with Orrin Pilkey's engaging and informative text, they create a treasure of a book that is at once beautiful and rigorously scientific. Pilkey identifies three major types of barriers—coastal plains, Arctic, and delta—each with its own geological characteristics and particular morphologies, which are themselves shaped by several factors, including the absence or presence of underlying rock formations, tidal patterns, and vegetation. Employing the latest advances in geological mapping, Pilkey also identifies traces of ancient barriers marking long-lost shorelines—a further reminder that in the geological dance of land and sea, change is the only constant.
Praise for Mary Edna Fraser and her art:
"Pilot with a palette... as much of an artist in the midst of the creative process as Picasso laboring over his easel." —Michael Kilian, Chicago Tribune
"Fraser's works depict an organization and sensuousness in the land that is visible only from the air." —Susan Lawson-Bell, National Air & Space Museum
"Exhibited and collected around the world, her batiks have a common theme: promoting the awareness of environmental beauty and change on the planet as seen from the air. " —Carolyn Russo, Women and Flight
Orrin H. Pilkey is James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Geology and director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Duke University. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Francis Shepard Award for Excellence in Marine Geology, and the author or editor of many books, including The Beaches Are Moving: The Drowning of America's Shoreline, Living by the Rules of the Sea, and The Corps and the Shore.Mary Edna Fraser is a renowned artist specializing in the production of large-scale batiks, many based on aerial photographs. Her work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the Duke University Museum of Art, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Sciences.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations Preface Prologue 1. Dennis Roars Ashore: A Beneficial Catastrophe 2. The Global Picture 3. The American Barrier Island Scene: Hot Dogs and Drumsticks 4. Barrier Islands and Human Realities: Awash in Politics 5. Delta Barrier Islands: That Sinking Feeling 6. Colombia's Pacific Islands: A Subsiding Tropical Paradise 7. The Carbonate Islands: Tropical Permafrost 8. Lagoon Barriers: The Quiet Ones 9. The Icelandic Islands: Of Fire and Ice 10. The Arctic Islands: The Cold and Dark Ones 11. False Islands: Things Aren't What They Seem to Be 12. Requiem for Some Friends Glossary of Terms References Cited Appendix Table 1. Global Barrier Islands Table 2. Delta Barrier Islands Table 3. Arctic Barrier Islands Table 4. Endangered Species Index
What People are Saying About This
Brent Blackwelder
Through its eloquent characterization of the condition of barrier islands worldwide with photos, charts and exquisite original batiks, A Celebration of the World's Barrier Islands has the potential to arouse widespread public concern for these islands, just as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring motivated the public on the subject of pesticides. For those development and engineering forces at work rearranging the earth's barrier islands, look out! A Celebration of the World's Barrier Islands is a compelling, informative and explosive missive that could mobilize public opinion against further short-sighted abuse of these dynamic islands.
— Brent Blackwelder, president, Friends of the Earth
