Gearhart, OR Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 4.8 miles north of Gearhart, OR
The coast 4.8 miles north of Gearhart, OR is actually gaining ground, not losing it: USGS's transects measure 3.64 feet of accretion a year here, sediment building up rather than washing away. At that rate, the shoreline has gained roughly 36.4 feet over the last decade.
What "Gearhart" means on this page
USGS surveys the coast in transects spaced a few hundred feet apart; this page groups the nearest ones into a single ~3.5-mile reading for the stretch closest to Gearhart, OR, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 46.10, -123.94. The survey behind it runs to 2002-2011, in USGS's Pacific Northwest assessment, using the LRR method. Shoreline surveys aren't repeated every year, so this is the most recent long-term measurement USGS has published for this coast, not a live reading.
What 3.64 ft/yr means over time
Holding the 3.64 ft/yr accretion rate 4.8 miles north of Gearhart, OR for 25 years would add roughly 91 feet of shoreline, again assuming nothing about the local sediment supply changes.
How solid is this number
This reading comes from 111 individual transects averaged together, 0% of which measured erosion rather than growth. Uncertainty on this specific number: 1.88 ft/yr either side. This segment ranks 1187 of 1211 measured US coastal segments, ordered from fastest erosion to fastest growth. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2012-1008. Rank 1076 nationally for growth belongs to Margate City, NJ, 2511 miles from this stretch, measured at 0.8 ft/yr, 0.2x this stretch's rate. 2.9 miles away, Gearhart, OR is the nearest other measured stretch: accretion (beach growing) at 3.67 ft/yr.
Gearhart, OR on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.