El Niño-fueled waves erase California beaches and destroy homes
Rising sea destroys homes, erases beaches in California
A state of emergency is in effect as El Niño-driven swells batter Southern California, destroying homes in Malibu and Dana Point and stripping beaches like Tamarack in Carlsbad. Experts warn the worst may be yet to come, with a Kelvin wave and king tides expected to coincide this winter, amplifying hazards already worsened by climate change.
Hopefully they can figure out a solution because honestly, I think Mother Nature is going to take everything back until they stop it, right? It's showing it can take the entire beach if it wants to pretty quickly.
- beerandt
Coastal erosion =/= sea level rise.
This is textbook expected behavior on a high energy deep water coast (eg cliffs, not mangroves)
- Animats
It's annoying for coastal areas, and a problem for beach houses, but California isn't really that vulnerable to rising sea levels. The Pacific Coast is mountainous and the ground slopes upward in short distances.
Here's the US topo map.[1] Look at vulnerable spots, such as Malibu and Oceanside. Three blocks inland you're 20 feet above sea level. Almost all problems are on the ocean side of the Pacific Coast Highway, which was a marginal place to build anyway.
Cliff edge erosion is an ongoing problem. That's why CALTRANS gave up on Devil's Slide as a road route and built the Tom Lantos Tunnels further inland. Small changes in sea level don't affect hundred-foot cliffs that much, though.
The places that really suffer from rising sea level are river deltas, sitting on deposited sand just barely above sea level. In the US, New Orleans has the worst problem. New York City has problems, and they're building coast defenses against storms. China's coastal cities are mostly on river deltas with really flat terrain. That's why China has to build ports way off shore, reached by miles of bridges, to get to deep water.
[1] https://en-us.topographic-map.com/map-9t5k57/Venice-Beach/?c...
- WalterBright
The Seattle Times ran an article maybe last year that measurements of sea level at Seattle had increased 8 inches over the last century.
The flaw in that is what is the reference frame? The tectonic plate Seattle is sitting on is going down under the cascade mountains.
And beaches have been eroding for millions of years.