Northwestern Hawaiian Atoll - French Frigate Shoals - Has Essentially Disappeared After Typhoon
Seven government scientists, who were on teams that had been studying and protecting endangered monk seals, green turtles and sea birds at French Frigate shoals East Island for decades, had to evacuate East Island on October 2 ahead of category 4 hurricane Walaka, one of the strongest hurricanes on record in the central Pacific. The island was the breeding ground for about half of Hawaii’s endangered green sea turtles and 30% of Hawaii’s highly endangered monk seals. When scientists recently examined satellite photos after the hurricane they discovered the whole half-mile long 400 ft wide island had vanished.
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East Island, French Frigate shoals, NWHI, before & after Hurricane Walaka
The photo above shows that strong waves from the south pushed the sand off the reef it overlaid and drove it into a shallow water trough to the north of the reef. The sand was not lost to deep water, but the island may never reform, because sea level continues to rise and the living corals on the fringing reefs were likely devastated by the hurricane. Without climate change and sea level rise, trade winds and long period swells would likely push the sand back over the reef rock and reform the island.
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Location of French Frigate shoals in the Hawaiian Island chain.
Over time, when sea level is stable, storms, swells winds and overwash create islands. The northwest Hawaiian islands were once large islands like the main island, but erosion and the cooling and sinking of the crust submerges the volcanic bases of all of the islands over periods of ten million years of more. However, coral and coraline algae growing on top of the volcanic core have been able to maintain islands long after the volcanic base submerged. That is, until now. Rapid sea level rise, ocean warming and acidification, and increasingly intense storms are killing the coral that protects and maintains low tropical and subtropical islands worldwide. Thus the breeding grounds for endangered sea turtles, monk seals and many birds are vanishing. East island is the third island in the northwest Hawaiian islands to be wiped out. Human activity, especially night lighting, makes large inhabited islands unsuitable for turtle and bird breeding, so there is no good substitute breeding grounds for lost uninhabited islands.
EDIT
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/23/1806681/-NW-Hawaiian-Island-Vanished-Was-Critical-Breeding-Ground-for-Turtles-Monk-Seals-Birds?utm_campaign=trending
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