Bathymetric and shoreline changes, northwestern Prudhoe Bay, Alaska

The coastal environment in the vicinity of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska (Fig. 1) is presently being vigorously utilized by petroleum activities. In particular, barges moving freight onshore over the past 8 years, have used the Prudhoe Bay entrance channel almost exclusively. To further facilitate the offloading of supply barges, Atlantic Richfield Company constructed a gravel fill causeway in 1975 between the Prudhoe Bay channel and Stump Island (Fig. 1). As initially constructed, the causeway extended 1.3 km perpendicular to the coast. Subsequently the causeway was extended 1.5 km in a northwesterly direction during the winter of 1975-76 to facilitate the offloading of barges stranded during the fall of 1975.