Latest Coastal geography Stories

The northern coastline of Alaska midway between Point Barrow and Prudhoe Bay is eroding by up to one-third the length of a football field annually because of a "triple whammy" of declining sea ice, warming seawater and increased wave activity, according to new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.The conditions have led to the steady retreat of 30 to 45 feet a year of the 12-foot-high bluffs -- frozen blocks of silt and peat containing 50 to 80 percent ice -- which are...

Environmental scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and Durham University have employed a novel combination of geological and model reconstructions of wetland environments during a 10,000-year period to address spatial variations in sea-level history and provide quantitative estimates of subsidence along the east coast of England.The findings indicate that glacial rebound "” the rise or fall of land masses that were depressed by the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial...

The Dutch beach in Monster is currently inhabited by bulldozers that are piling sand taken from the bottom of the North Sea into dunes in a determined attempt to protect the Netherlands from flooding.The ambitious project, located 15 miles south of The Hague, is one of several plans in a continued fight against increasing sea levels accredited to global warming."Because it is a low-lying delta, the Netherlands is very sensitive to climate change," Water Management Deputy Minister...

All across the islands of Hawaii, residents have stood by and watched helplessly for years as the majestic archipelago's sandy white beaches have steadily retreated "” a phenomenon that geologists warn will likely worsen in the coming decades as warming global temperatures bring rising sea levels around the world.According to the Associated Press, experts say that over 70 percent of the island Kauai's pristine beaches are on the decline while Oahu has already seen roughly a quarter of its...

An international team of environmental scientists led by the University of Pennsylvania has shown that sea-level rise, at least in North Carolina, is accelerating. Researchers found 20th-century sea-level rise to be three times higher than the rate of sea-level rise during the last 500 years. In addition, this jump appears to occur between 1879 and 1915, a time of industrial change that may provide a direct link to human-induced climate change.The results appear in the current issue of the...

Tsunamis are among the most-devastating natural calamities. These earthquake-generated waves can quickly engulf low-lying land and bring widespread destruction and death. They can deposit sand and debris far inland from where they came ashore.Now, for the first time, a group of scientists working in the Kuril Islands off the east coast of Russia has documented the scope of tsunami-caused erosion and found that a wave can carry away far more sand and dirt than it deposits.The fortuitous...

While most people head to Myrtle Beach for vacation, a group of scientists have been hitting the famous South Carolina beach for years to figure out how to keep the sand from washing away.Although they studied only a limited segment of beach, their work is a model for beach preservation that can apply elsewhere. And with talk of "balancing the sand budget" and money saved on restoration, their findings sound financial.The study will be presented to scientists from around the world at the...

VENICE BEACH, Calif. and RAGLAN, New Zealand, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Amalgamate Solutions and Research (ASR), the world leader in the design and construction of multi-purpose artificial reefs, announced today that it has completed Europe's first multi-purpose reef on the Boscombe shoreline, just outside of southern England's coastal town of Bournemouth. The reef was engineered and constructed by ASR, who spearheads the movement towards environmentally sensitive coastal protection. ASR was...

Long-term monitoring by Stony Brook University researchers finds rip currents are frequent but short-lived at East Hampton Village BeachRip currents"”powerful, channeled currents of water flowing away from the shore"”represent a danger to human life and property. Rip currents are responsible for more than one hundred deaths on our nation's beaches each year, according to the United States Lifesaving Association, and if rip currents persist long enough they can cause beach erosion. Henry...

The windswept deserts of northern China might seem an odd destination for studying the heavy monsoon rains that routinely drench the more tropical regions of Southeast Asia. But the sandy dunefields that mark the desert margin between greener pastures to the south and the Gobi Desert to the north are a rich source of information about past climates in Asia, says University of Wisconsin-Madison geographer Joseph Mason.Wetter periods allow vegetation to take root on and stabilize sand dunes....