Barrier rollover and spit accretion due to the combined action of storm surge induced washover events and progradation: Insights from ground-penetrating radar surveys and sedimentological data

ABSTRACT Tillmann, T. and Wunderlich, J., 2013. Barrier rollover and spit accretion due to the combined action of storm surge induced washover events and progradation: Insights from ground-penetrating radar surveys and sedimentological data. Barrier islands and spits are geological young, highly dynamic and represent a complex coastal system that includes a number of different but closely related sedimentary depositional environments. In this study ground-penetrating radar data of different antenna frequencies and sedimentological data were combined to reveal the sedimentary structure and architecture of the southern barrier island spit of Sylt and to set up a barrier island stratigraphy. Based on these data, two sedimentological models have been generated for Southern Sylt which describes the inter-action between extreme events, coastal processes and sedimentary development and contains the major episodes of barrier island evolution. The first model is concerned with the spit add-on zone where the barrie...