Newark, MD Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 9.8 miles southeast of Newark, MD?
Good news, and an honest one: USGS's data can't distinguish this stretch, 9.8 miles southeast of Newark, MD, from a flat trend. Whatever small movement it measured here is statistical noise, not a reliable direction, so none is claimed.
What "Newark" 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 Newark, MD, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 38.15, -75.19. 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
117 transects feed this segment's number; 78% of them individually measured retreat. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.3 ft/yr either side. The unadjusted figure here, -0.05 ft/yr, would place it 707 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 Open-File Report 2010-1119. Rank 1211 nationally for growth belongs to Ocean Shores, WA, 2522 miles from this stretch, measured at 12.13 ft/yr. 2.3 miles away, Newark, MD is the nearest other measured stretch: also no significant trend.
Newark, MD on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.