America's shoreline won't look the same in 2050. Shorelines change gradually all the time, but a combination of factors — chief among them rising sea levels — mean that some stretches of the U.S. coasts could be altered dramatically in the next 35 years.
In a 2014 report, researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey attempted to predict the likelihood of a coastal area receding by at least one meter (three feet, four inches) in a year. To do this, they looked at available data on rates of sea-level rise plus several geological and hydrographic factors: wave height, tidal range, coastal slope, geographic features of the coastal area, and the rate the shoreline has changed in the past.
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