Chincoteague, VA Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 1.6 miles southeast of Chincoteague, VA
The coast 1.6 miles southeast of Chincoteague, VA shows no statistically significant trend either way. USGS's transects measured a rate here, but it's smaller than the survey's own margin of error for this stretch, so calling it "eroding" or "growing" would overstate what the data actually shows.
What "Chincoteague" means on this page
Nothing here is parcel-level. USGS's raw transects run every few hundred feet along the shore; this page averages the ones nearest Chincoteague, VA into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 37.93°N, 75.33°W. USGS's New England / Mid-Atlantic assessment last surveyed this stretch through 2007-2009, computing the rate with its LRR method. Other US regions were surveyed in different years, sometimes decades apart, so this page states its own rather than implying one national vintage.
What backs this reading up
This reading comes from 43 individual transects averaged together, 35% of which measured erosion rather than growth. The published margin on this reading runs ±0.4 ft/yr. Taken at face value, this segment's raw 0.24 ft/yr reading would land it 946 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. Rank 1154 nationally for growth belongs to Ocean Park, WA, 2520 miles from this stretch, measured at 1.87 ft/yr. 1.9 miles away, Chincoteague, VA is the nearest other measured stretch: accretion (beach growing) at 1.09 ft/yr.
Chincoteague, VA on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.