Low voltages generate minerals that bind grains together into an limestone-like aggregate
As seas batter fragile coasts, erosion can turn a paradise into disaster. Here, the battered remains of a house that collapsed earlier this month litter the beach in Rodanthe, N.C.</p>
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As seas batter fragile coasts, erosion can turn a paradise into disaster. Here, the battered remains of a house that collapsed earlier this month litter the beach in Rodanthe, N.C.
NPS
Shorelines worldwide have always been vulnerable to coastal erosion, a phenomenon rendered more ominous by rising sea levels that accompany modern-day climate change (SN: 9/29/22).
Coastal engineers have few ways to address this erosion, says Alessandro Rotta Loria, a civil engineer at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. One method is to build a seawall; another is to truck in more sand once wave action sweeps away a beach’s supply. Neither approach works more than a few years, he notes. And injecting plastics or other substances to help consolidate loose sand would have detrimental effects on the environment.
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