Will we lose all our beaches underwater as sea levels rise? Won’t it take years for new beaches to form?
In: Earth Science
When Hurricane Irma hit the north shore of Cuba in September 2017 – specifically the resort area of Cayo Coco and surrounding islands – the beaches were completely washed away as waves pounded inland for several hundred meters. When I went to Cayo Coco in February 2018, some of the resorts were just beginning to reopen (having been rebuilding since the previous September), and far out from the shore, massive hydrovac ships were pumping sand back to the shoreline to reestablish the beaches. Many kilometers of beaches were rebuilt with 50-100 feet+ of new waterfront sand.
I would think that as water rises slowly, and infrastructure and buildings become old, damaged, or not worth saving, that there is a lot of private and government money ready to rebuild beaches at new sea levels to maintain waterfront holiday spots whenever that time comes.
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