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Hurricane Balls
2004). Hurricanes are known to impact and deform marshes; for example, Hurricane Andrew’s impact on the Louisiana marshes included marsh balls created as the marsh was piled, rolled, and deformed (Loveland and McPherson 1998). The marshes on Timbalier Island in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, were “stripped of exposed vegetation and the substrate was scoured, and in some areas the marsh was peeled up in strips and formed into ‘balls’ that were deposited some distance away” during Hurricane Andrew (Pen-land et al. 2003). This research identified a condition called compressed marsh which is described as a loss of surface area causing the marsh to push together like an accordion. Nearly 25 cm (10 in) of sediment carried by storm surge during Hurricane Andrew was deposited on the floating marsh, causing it to sink (Penland et al. 2003).
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita underscored the fragility of
south Mississippi’s and Louisiana’s barrier islands, coastal marshes, and wetlands (Marris 2005). Louisiana and Mississippi need healthy marshes, sturdy barrier islands, and functioning wetlands to protect their fragile coastlines from the pounding waves and howling winds of tropical storms and hurricanes. However, Landsat satellite data from September and October 2005 showed Hurricanes Katrina and Rita transformed over 100 square miles of marsh to open wateT, with the most substantial marsh loss occurring east of the Mississippi River in St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, Louisiana (U.S. Geological Survey 2005). Hurricane ball formation requires a combination of dead marsh grass, as well as wind and waves from severe weather events. Whether or not the occurrence of these “curious objects" is a warning sign or indicator of coastal and barrier island marshes in distress is a topic of speculation and further research.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to M. Williams, Gunter Library, for reading an earlier version of the paper and to N.J. Brown-Peterson and M.S. Peterson for their review and editorial assistance.
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