Hurricane Deposits on Carbonate Platforms: A Case Study of Hurricane Irma Deposits on Little Ambergris Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands

The study of modern hurricane deposits is useful in both identifying ancient hurricane deposits in the rock record and predicting patterns of deposition and erosion produced by future storm events. Hurricane deposits on carbonate platforms have been studied less frequently than have been those along continental coasts. Here we present observations of the characteristics of deposition and scour caused by Hurricane Irma on Little Ambergris Cay, a small uninhabited island located near the southeastern edge of the Caicos platform in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Hurricane Irma passed directly over Little Ambergris Cay on 7 September 2017 as a Category 5 hurricane. We described and sampled multiple types of hurricane deposits and determined that the washover fans were the best sedimentological records for hurricane conditions, as they were subject to very little reworking over time. We compared different model predictions of storm tide and wave height with eyewitness reports and distributions of scour. Examining the washover fans allowed for the construction of a conceptual model for hurricane deposits formed in a high-energy storm event on a carbonate platform. Characteristics of the washover fans were their small size, the lack of sedimentary structures, and very well sorted sediment. The size and distribution of carbonate boulders eroded and transported by the storm are consistent with depth-averaged flow velocities in the range of 1.5-5.3 m/s. The strength of the storm and the low-lying topography, distinct features of a carbonate platform setting, contributed to high levels of sediment bypass and high flow velocities, resulting in small, unstructured deposits.