Figure 8.
Morphology of Chatham Harbor, 23 May 1989
By 22 May 1992, the South Beach spit finally closed the opening to south
Chatham Harbor, as it moved west and welded onto the mainland beach just to the
south of the lighthouse (Figure 11). Now all of the tidal prism of north Chatham
Harbor/Pleasant Bay flowed out the mouth of Chatham Inlet. Large ebb oriented
shoals formed on the southern end of the swash platform, shoaling the main ebb
channel. This main ebb channel curved from a southeast orientation inside the
swash platform to a more east direction through the throat area. The Nauset Spit
(North Beach) developed several finger spits off the ocean side and a large bar
system graded into the swash platform. The spit and swash platform continued
20
Chapter 3 Inlet Throat, Shoreline, and Channel Evolution
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