Understanding Coastal Erosion & Island Loss

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Darrin Lowery

Darrin Lowery was raised on Tilghman Island and comes from a family of Maryland boat builders, watermen, and farmers. His interest in history, archaeology, and geology began at the age of seven, while exploring the eroding shorelines of the Chesapeake Bay with his father. He has a PhD from the University of Delaware specializing in coastal geology and geoarchaeology.

Check out the geological, and archaeological histories of islands that have eroded away in the Chesapeake Bay region.

Darrin Lowery starts this program off with a discussion about coastal erosion by explaining that coastal erosion in the Chesapeake Bay region is not unique to the 20th or 21st centuries. Many islands vanished long before the first official coastal survey maps were prepared in the mid-19th century.

This course is a cultural, historical, and archaeological overview of these vanished islands. A specific focus will be on Sharps Island, which was once located at the mouth of the Choptank River. Based on decades of data, the course will also highlight the array of geologic variables that influence the rate of coastal erosion. Not all landscapes in the bay region are disappearing. Some islands around the Delmarva Peninsula have increased in land area over the past three centuries.

The following Friday, we head out to Tilghman Island to the Watermen’s Museum to tour the museum with Mary Kellog, one of the founders of the museum, and an opportunity to see the Sharp’s Island exhibit.