Alaska - Erosion Rate More Than Doubles Over 5 Years Along 40-Mile Section Of Beaufort Sea

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Skyrocketing coastal erosion occurred in Alaska between 2002 and 2007 along a 64 kilometer (40 mile) stretch of the Beaufort Sea, a new study finds. The surge of erosion in recent years, averaging more than double historical rates, is threatening coastal towns and destroying Alaskan cultural relics.

Average annual erosion rates along this segment of the Beaufort Sea, which lies North of Alaska, had already climbed from about 6.1 m (20 ft) per year between the mid-1950s and late-1970s, to 8.5 m (28 ft.) Per year between the late-1970s and early 2000s, the study's authors note.

The most recent erosion rates reached an average of 14 meters (45 feet) per year during the 2002- 2007 period, reported Benjamin Jones, a geologist with the U.S Geological Survey in Anchorage, and his colleagues on February 14 in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Changing arctic conditions may have caused these recent shifts in the rate and pattern of land loss along this coastline segment, the authors propose. The changes include declining sea ice extent, increasing summertime sea-surface temperature, rising sea level, and increases in storm power and corresponding wave action. "These factors may be leading to a new era in ocean-land interactions that seem to be repositioning and reshaping the Arctic coastline," Jones and his colleagues write. The authors also documented sections of Beaufort Sea coastline that eroded more than 24 m (80 ft.) During 2007.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Erosion_Rates_Double_Along_Portion_Of_Alaska_Coast_999.html