New Hanover
County
Rich Inlet
Banks Channel
Mason Inlet
Relocation
Mason Creek
Old Mason
Inlet
Masonboro
Inlet
0
5000
Scale in Feet
Fig. 1. Study site location map
Mason Inlet is a shallow tidal inlet with 1.2 m (3.8 ft) mean tidal range and 1.5 m (4.8 ft)
mean spring tidal range, connecting the Atlantic Ocean and Banks Channel between Figure Eight
Island and Wrightsville Beach, New Hanover County, North Carolina. The area between the
AIWW and Mason Inlet is the Middle Sound Estuary that encompasses Banks Channel and
Mason Creek tidal channels, numerous small tidal channels, and a broad area of wetland marsh.
As evidenced in photographs from the 1960's and 1970's, Mason Creek was the primary tidal
channel between the AIWW and Mason Inlet prior to development of Figure Eight Island.
During that time, Mason Creek was nominally 1.8 m (6 ft) in depth, and relatively stable.
Following deepening of Banks Channel to a depth of 3.7 m (12 ft) (NGVD), Mason Creek began
to shoal. By 1999, bed elevations in Mason Creek were only -2 to +1 ft (NGVD), and the
resulting tidal flows had shifted from Mason Creek to Banks Channel.
The inlets adjacent to Mason Inlet are the federally maintained, Masonboro Inlet located
8 km (5 miles) to the south and Rich Inlet located some 5.6 km (3.5 miles) to the north. The tidal
flows and tidal prisms at these inlets control the circulation patterns and hydrodynamics of the
Middle Sound Estuary system. In this area, the tides are mixed and semi-diurnal. A month long
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