Will we lose all our beaches underwater as sea levels rise? Won’t it take years for new beaches to form?
In: Earth Science
Ideally, no, the rates are slow enough that the beaches will migrate with the change in sea level. There are situations where we humans have developed the near back-shore zone where the beaches ought to migrate if/when water rises, but the presence of human infrastructure will interfere with the natural migration. People won’t be all that complacent about beaches migrating onto their property (or later, the ocean migrating onto their property).
It is possible, likely even in many places, that the beaches will relocate laterally (like if there are rocky headlands that won’t allow sand accumulation, the sand will migrate downshore somewhere). These sorts of things already happen.
Some beaches and barrier islands will get lost and become off-shore bars rather than beaches, but how each and every situation will modify in response to changing sea level is very much dependent on the specific circumstances of the location.
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