San Simeon, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 14 miles northwest of San Simeon, CA
The coast 14 miles northwest of San Simeon, 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 "San Simeon" 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 San Simeon, CA into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 35.76°N, 121.32°W. USGS's California assessment last surveyed this stretch through 1852-2016, 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.
How solid is this number
Averaging 38 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 55% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. USGS's confidence interval here is ±0.27 ft/yr. Taken at face value, this segment's raw -0.03 ft/yr reading would land it 746 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 1181 nationally for growth belongs to Mexico Beach, FL, 2105 miles from this stretch, measured at 2.91 ft/yr. San Simeon, CA, 0.4 miles off, is the adjacent measured stretch, itself no significant trend.
San Simeon, CA on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.