Currituck Sound

Currituck Sound (/ˈkʊrɪtʌk/)^[1] is a lagoon located in northeastern part of North Carolina and extreme southeastern Virginia.

36 miles (58 km) long north-south and 8 miles (13 km) at its widest,^[2] this shallow, island-filled sound is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Currituck Banks Peninsula (formerly Bodie Island), part of the Outer Banks. On the northeast, it extends to Back Bay in southeast Virginia Beach, Virginia. A fork on the northwest leads to the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, which is a part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway that connects the sound to Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay. It ranges from 1 to 3 feet deep.^[3]

Although several inlets connected it directly to the Atlantic at one time or another, they have all since closed and there is now no direct access to the Ocean from the Sound. Thus contemporary salinity levels are very low, usually around 2-3‰ at the north end and 4-5‰ at the sound.^[2]

Currently, the only access to the ocean is through the Albemarle Sound, which joins the Currituck to the South, meaning that the sound has no lunar or solar tides. Instead, wind is the major force that moves water.^[2]^[3]

Currituck County's Mackay Island and Currituck National Wildlife Refuge as well as Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge and False Cape State Park in Virginia Beach border the sound and are winter habitats on the Atlantic Flyway. Many watersports activities occur in the sound, including parasailing, sea kayaking, and jet skiing. An area of barrier beaches, it is also noted for its duck and goose hunting.

References

^ Talk Like A Tarheel Archived June 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c Moran, Kelli L.; Mallinson, David J.; Culver, Stephen J.; Leorri, Eduardo; Mulligan, Ryan P. (2015). "Late Holocene Evolution of Currituck Sound, North Carolina, USA: Environmental Change Driven by Sea-Level Rise, Storms, and Barrier Island Morphology". Journal of Coastal Research. 31 (4): 827–841. doi:10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-14-00069.1. hdl:10342/4096. ISSN 0749-0208. JSTOR 43432897. S2CID 130347776.
^ ^a ^b "Secrets of Currituck Sound | UNC-TV: Science". science.unctv.org. Retrieved September 27, 2022.

36°17′01″N 75°52′14″W / 36.28361°N 75.87056°W / 36.28361; -75.87056

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[North_Carolina_Collection-1] Talk Like A Tarheel Archived June 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved February 5, 2013.

[:0-2] Moran, Kelli L.; Mallinson, David J.; Culver, Stephen J.; Leorri, Eduardo; Mulligan, Ryan P. (2015). "Late Holocene Evolution of Currituck Sound, North Carolina, USA: Environmental Change Driven by Sea-Level Rise, Storms, and Barrier Island Morphology". Journal of Coastal Research. 31 (4): 827–841. doi:10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-14-00069.1. hdl:10342/4096. ISSN 0749-0208. JSTOR 43432897. S2CID 130347776.

[:1-3] "Secrets of Currituck Sound | UNC-TV: Science". science.unctv.org. Retrieved September 27, 2022.

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v t e Outer Banks of North Carolina and Virginia
Landforms	Bodie Island Knotts Island Monkey Island Mary Island Colington Island Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula Roanoke Island Pea Island Hatteras Island No Ache Island Cape Hatteras Shelly Island Ocracoke Island Beacon Island Portsmouth Island Core Banks Cape Lookout
Places	City of Virginia Beach Sandbridge Currituck County Knotts Island Carova Beach Corolla Dare County Duck Southern Shores Kitty Hawk Kill Devil Hills Colington Nags Head Whalebone Junction Manteo Wanchese Rodanthe Waves Salvo Avon Buxton Frisco Hatteras Hyde County Ocracoke Carteret County Portsmouth Cape Lookout Village
Waterways	Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Bays Onslow Bay Raleigh Bay Back Bay Knotts Island Bay Sounds Currituck Sound Albemarle Sound Croatan Sound Roanoke Sound Pamlico Sound Core Sound Back Sound Inlets Oregon Inlet New Inlet Isabel Inlet Hatteras Inlet Ocracoke Inlet Drum Inlet Barden Inlet
Lighthouses	Currituck Beach Light Bodie Island Light Cape Hatteras Light Ocracoke Light Cape Lookout Light
Protected areas and wildlife	National seashores Cape Hatteras National Seashore Cape Lookout National Seashore Wildlife refuges Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge Currituck National Wildlife Refuge Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge State parks False Cape State Park Jockey's Ridge State Park State coastal reserves Kitty Hawk Woods Buxton Woods Game lands Currituck Banks Game Land Roanoke Island Marshes Game Land Buxton Woods Game Land Preserves Nags Head Woods Preserve Roanoke Island Marshes Preserve Museums, zoos, and institutes North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum University of North Carolina - Coastal Studies Institute Other Mountains-to-Sea Trail Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary Fort Raleigh National Historic Site Wright Brothers National Memorial Currituck Banks North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve Run Hill State Natural Area Wildlife Banker horse Red wolf
Transportation	Routes Historic Albemarle Tour North Carolina Ferry System Bridges Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge Marc Basnight Bridge Herbert C. Bonner Bridge Wright Memorial Bridge William B. Umstead Bridge Washington Baum Bridge Melvin R. Daniels Bridge Rodanthe Bridge Mid-Currituck Bridge Captain Richard Etheridge Bridge Airports Dare County Regional Airport First Flight Airport Billy Mitchell Airport Ocracoke Island Airport
History	Events and places Pea Island Life-Saving Station Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Roanoke Colony Graveyard of the Atlantic Torpedo Alley Battle of the Atlantic Hatteras Weather Bureau Station Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island People Roanoke people Croatan Wanchese Manteo John White Richard Grenville Blackbeard Raleigh Virginia Dare Marc Basnight
Weather	1936 Outer Banks hurricane 1945 Outer Banks hurricane Hurricane Fran Hurricane Irene Hurricane Isabel Hurricane Dorian Hazard mitigation

Authority control databases
International	VIAF
National	United States Israel
Other	NARA

See also

References