A stretch of beach that's a no-go zone after a sixth house collapsed into the ocean on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in four years has put the issue of U.S. coastal erosion into focus.
Why it matters: "In general, most of the U.S. east and Gulf coasts are affected by coastal erosion," notes Tulane Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering's Sönke Dangendorf, who led a 2023 study on how sea levels in these regions have been rapidly rising since 2010 — in some cases at rates "unprecedented in at least 120 years."
