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Satellite images show how Fiona's surge sucked sand off P.E.I.'s shores

Before and after satellite images show how the outline of P.E.I. changed after Fiona. (CBC - image credit)
Before and after satellite images show how the outline of P.E.I. changed after Fiona. (CBC - image credit)

The Canadian Space Agency has posted satellite photos that dramatically illustrate how post-tropical storm Fiona changed Prince Edward Island's coastline.

"This comparison of satellite images of Prince Edward Island and the Northumberland Strait, taken on Aug. 21 and Sept. 25, 2022, shows the extent to which the extreme wind and wave action of the storm has churned up the seafloor and eroded the coastline," the agency said on Twitter Tuesday.

ESA/Copernicus Sentinel-2
ESA/Copernicus Sentinel-2
ESA/Copernicus Sentinel-2
ESA/Copernicus Sentinel-2

The space agency said the images were from the European Union, containing modified Copernicus Sentinel-2 data.

Earlier Tuesday, Chris Houser, a professor in the School of the Environment at the University of Windsor in Ontario, told CBC News that almost 10 metres of sand dunes in P.E.I. National Park are gone in some places.

"This is an extremely dramatic event," he said. "The amount of erosion, from my understanding, is reminiscent of a hurricane that passed through back in the 1930s."