Gilgo, NY Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 1.7 miles east of Gilgo, NY?
The coast 1.7 miles east of Gilgo, NY has been retreating at a measured 3.01 feet a year, USGS's own long-term rate for this stretch, built from historical shoreline positions rather than a single survey. At that rate, the shoreline has lost roughly 30.1 feet over the last decade.
What "Gilgo" means on this page
This is a roughly 3.5-mile stretch of coast, not one address or parcel - USGS's own transects run every few hundred feet, but that's finer than any one property needs, so this page reports the stretch nearest Gilgo, NY. Centered near 40.63°N, 73.35°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.
25 years at this rate
If 3.01 ft/yr holds for the next 25 years, the coast 1.7 miles east of Gilgo, NY would retreat roughly 75 more feet, a projection, not a certainty: erosion rates shift with storms, sediment supply and any armoring built in the meantime.
What backs this reading up
This reading comes from 83 individual transects averaged together, 100% of which measured erosion rather than growth. Uncertainty on this specific number: 1.55 ft/yr either side. Sorted from fastest erosion to fastest growth across all 1211 measured segments nationally, this one lands at 95. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. Pescadero, CA sits at national rank 496 for erosion (0.21 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 2613 miles from here. Gilgo, NY, 1.4 miles off, is the adjacent measured stretch, reading severe erosion at 3.62 ft/yr.
Gilgo, NY on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.