Malibu, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 2.5 miles west of Malibu, CA?
The coast 2.5 miles west of Malibu, CA 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 "Malibu" 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 Malibu, CA into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 34.01°N, 118.80°W. 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.
How solid is this number
This reading comes from 124 individual transects averaged together, 55% of which measured erosion rather than growth. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.13 ft/yr either side. Taken at face value, this segment's raw -0.02 ft/yr reading would land it 755 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS National Shoreline Change data release (ScienceBase, DOI 10.5066/P94J0K7Z), Kratzmann 2024 / Data Report 1187. Rank 1210 nationally for growth belongs to Chincoteague, VA, 2421 miles from this stretch, measured at 11.04 ft/yr. Malibu, CA, 1.8 miles off, is the adjacent measured stretch, itself no significant trend.
One address near Malibu: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal zooms past this stretch to the underlying map.