Friday, October 02, 2009

Kiket Island







Kiket is not really an island, but a rocky point connected to the rest of North America by a tombolo (as usual, the title of the post links to an aerial view). Maybe it started as a cuspate foreland, a triangle of spits reaching for the island, but ultimately it connected, resulting in a double tombolo and a small tidal lagoon. Flagstaff Island, just west of Kiket, is attached by another smaller tombolo. The beaches on the south side get the brunt of the southerly wave action and trap the big logs. The northern beaches are more protected and the wood that does come ashore doesn’t stay long.

The island includes the remains of the old research lab where UW students sorted through biological data – better to document conditions prior to the construction of a salt water-cooled nuclear power station proposed in the late 1960s (but never built). Now it looks like it will become a park.

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