Orleans, MA Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 4.1 miles southeast of Orleans, MA
The coast 4.1 miles southeast of Orleans, MA has been retreating at a measured 1.32 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 13.2 feet over the last decade.
What "Orleans" 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 Orleans, MA. Centered near 41.75°N, 69.94°W. Survey years: 2007-2009, method LRR, from USGS's New England / Mid-Atlantic 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.
25 years at this rate
If 1.32 ft/yr holds for the next 25 years, the coast 4.1 miles southeast of Orleans, MA would retreat roughly 33 more feet, a projection, not a certainty: erosion rates shift with storms, sediment supply and any armoring built in the meantime.
Where this fits nationally
This reading comes from 112 individual transects averaged together, 100% of which measured erosion rather than growth. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.5 ft/yr either side. Among the 1211 US coastal segments with a measurable trend, this one ranks 174 for erosion, 1 being the fastest-retreating coast in the dataset. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. South Padre Island, TX sits at national rank 91 for erosion (3.17 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 1877 miles from here. 3.3 miles away, Orleans, MA is the nearest other measured stretch: moderate erosion at 1.37 ft/yr.
Orleans, MA on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.