Inverness, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 4.9 miles south of Inverness, CA?
Good news, and an honest one: USGS's data can't distinguish this stretch, 4.9 miles south of Inverness, CA, from a flat trend. Whatever small movement it measured here is statistical noise, not a reliable direction, so none is claimed.
What this reading actually covers
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 Inverness, CA, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 38.01, -122.85. Survey years: 1852-2016, method LRR, from USGS's California shoreline-change assessment. That's how current the data is here, real, but not a live feed, since a shoreline survey is a major undertaking, not an annual check-in.
Where this fits nationally
98 transects feed this segment's number; 72% of them individually measured retreat. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.2 ft/yr either side. The unadjusted figure here, -0.07 ft/yr, would place it 692 of 1211 if ranked directly - but an unreliable rank isn't a useful one, which is exactly why "no significant trend" is the headline instead. Source: USGS National Shoreline Change data release (ScienceBase, DOI 10.5066/P94J0K7Z), Kratzmann 2024 / Data Report 1187. Rank 1129 nationally for growth belongs to Provincetown, MA, 2754 miles from this stretch, measured at 1.26 ft/yr. 1.7 miles away, Inverness, CA is the nearest other measured stretch: also no significant trend.
Not this whole stretch, just Inverness itself: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal is USGS's own live version of this data.