Shelter Cove, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 10.7 miles northwest of Shelter Cove, CA?
The coast 10.7 miles northwest of Shelter Cove, 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 this reading actually covers
Nothing here is parcel-level. USGS's raw transects run every few hundred feet along the shore; this page averages the ones nearest Shelter Cove, CA into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 40.15°N, 124.20°W. The survey behind it runs to 1852-2016, in USGS's California assessment, using the LRR method. Shoreline surveys aren't repeated every year, so this is the most recent long-term measurement USGS has published for this coast, not a live reading.
What backs this reading up
127 transects feed this segment's number; 28% of them individually measured retreat. The published margin on this reading runs ±0.52 ft/yr. Taken at face value, this segment's raw 0.07 ft/yr reading would land it 831 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. For scale: Quinby, VA, 2587 miles away, ranks 1184 of 1211 nationally for growth, 3.29 ft/yr. 2 miles up the coast, Shelter Cove, CA shows the same lack of a significant trend.
One address near Shelter Cove: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal zooms past this stretch to the underlying map.