Geomorphic Preservation and Formational History near Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA: Implications for Coastal Resiliency and Paleo-Sea Level Characterization

The Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA) coastline is an area of critical strategic importance due to the role it plays in access to space, its ecological sensitivity, as well as a center of technological innovation. This area is situated on a passive continental margin where the coastal morphology is primarily influenced by oceanographic processes, including sea level changes and wave dynamics, as well as meteorological processes such as tropical storms and aeolian (wind-driven) sediment transport. Through time, these dominant processes have preserved a set of well-defined beach ridge systems referred to as capes. This study aims to interrogate the preserved and evolved geomorphic elements at Cape Canaveral and its surrounding area, termed the Cape Kennedy Complex, including the Pamlico shoreline in the west through to the present-day Atlantic shoreline in the east, with a well-documented paleo-sea level history spanning the last 150,000 years with the aim to better understand the temporal and spatial evolution of this area.