erosion I have a good appetite cape cod. Sometimes, the damage can last for years and be difficult to notice. Additionally, storms can devour large swathes of land in a matter of hours.
It can be difficult to keep track of how things have changed over the years. But when you compare images of an area over time, it’s easy to see how severe the erosion is.
of cape cod national seashore I recently posted a pair of images Facebook page These provide a breathtaking look at how erosion has affected Eastham’s Coast Guard Beach.
Early postcard images from the 1960s. Eastham Historical Society collection. This photo shows a landscape that includes a large parking lot south of the former Coast Guard building and a large expanse of green lawn between the building and the ocean.
It is displayed alongside a National Park Service aerial photo from 2014, nearly 50 years after the first image. The parking lot is gone and the old Coast Guard building is much closer to the sea.
Seashore visual information specialist Lindsey French helped put the change into perspective in an email to the Cape Cod Times.
“Coast Guard Beach and Nauset Light Beach in particular typically see a significant amount of erosion due to nearshore sediment transport and parabolic dune formation,” French wrote. “This is part of the normal erosion cycle, but as storms increase in intensity, more damage can occur.”
How many bluffs were lost in Eastham?
“The bluffs decrease by about 3 to 5 feet per year, and even more if we have a particularly bad storm. For example, in the recent storm of January 14-15, 2024, those bluffs is the only weather event that saw a decrease of several feet during that period. ”
Assuming the postcard image dates from around 1965, French estimated that “that coastline has probably lost somewhere between 177 and 295 feet over the past 59 years.”
French also pointed out that the legendary storm known as the 1978 Blizzard “destroyed a much larger than average portion of the Coast Guard Beach landscape.”
The larger-than-average lot in 1978 included the parking lot seen in the 1960s image.
On February 10, 1978, the newspaper headline read, “Coast Guard Parking Runs Out, Outermost House Washed Out.” Story The Cape Codder newspaper reported that “all parking spaces at Eastham’s Coast Guard Beach have been permanently occupied by the Atlantic Ocean.”
And it wasn’t just the parking lot that suffered major damage.
According to an article in the Cape Codder, “To the south beyond the remains of the parking lot, the ocean swallowed up the remaining structures of the Nauset Spit.”
coast history The Coast Guard Beach professor added of the 1978 storm: “The waves repeatedly swept over large parts of Nauset Spit. In the process, four of Henry Beston’s houses were destroyed, including the Outermost House, made famous by his book of the same name. I did.”
The dramatic changes that have occurred over the decades may leave you wondering about the Cape’s geological future. Maybe it’s better to not think too far into the future and just enjoy what you have now.
according to geological history of Cape Cod produced by US Department of the Interior And that United States Geological Survey“Sometime in the distant future, but not for many generations, Cape Cod will be little more than a few low sandy islands surrounded by shallow water.”
When Eric Williams isn’t solving Cape Cod mysteries, he writes about Cape Cod, weather, wildlife, and other topics. To contact him, ewilliams@capecodonline.com. X: Follow him at @capecast.
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